Type 1 diabetics may soon benefit from a treatment that could enable them to survive without the daily insulin injections, according to findings published in the current issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Type 1 diabetes, previously known as juvenile diabetes, is usually diagnosed in children and young adults. In type 1 diabetes, the body does not produce insulin, a hormone that is needed to convert sugar, starches and other food into energy needed for daily life. That’s why patients with this condition need daily shots with insulin to use glucose from meals.
According to the new study, however, type 1 diabetics may not need these insulin shots for as long as four years thanks to stem cell transplant. The procedure known as autologous non-myeloablative hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation was first reported in 2007 by researchers of Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, but they have since looked at how long it persisted.
The procedure involvesinjecting people with stem cells made from their bone marrow cells and according to the findings it appears to have a lasting effect.
The study included 23 patients with type 1 diabetes who were treated with their own stem cells. On them, 20 reduced or ended dependence on insulin as their bodies took over production of the hormone. Twelve patients stayed off insulin for extended periods, while eight relapsed and returned to low-dose shots. Three didn’t respond.
“After a mean follow-up of 29.8 months following autologous nonmyeloablative HSCT in patients with newly diagnosed type 1 DM, C-peptide levels increased significantly and the majority of patients achieved insulin independence with good glycemic control,” the study authors wrote in their study.
However, they said the study findings are limited because there were few people involved.
“At the present time, autologous nonmyeloablative HSCT remains the only treatment capable of reversing type 1 DM in humans. Randomized controlled trials and further biological studies are necessary to confirm the role of this treatment in changing the natural history of type 1 DM,” the authors further wrote.
Writing in an editorial accompanying the study, Christopher D. Saudek of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore said a cure for type 1 diabetes is really needed, as the number of people suffering from this condition is on the rise. However, it will take some time until such a cure will be available, he cautioned.
“More likely, the cure will be a gradual process, building over years. Biological approaches will improve incrementally, with the procedures becoming more effective with fewer adverse effects,” Saudek said.
