The American Diabetes Association strongly supports the protection and expansion of all forms of stem cell research, and with good reason. It is widely accepted throughout the world that stem cell research is one of the most promising avenues toward a cure for type 1 diabetes, and provides a powerful tool for controlling type 2 diabetes. Scientists are exploring several avenues of research regarding stem cell therapies and control of both forms of diabetes.
What Is Diabetes?
Type 1 and type 2 diabetes result when certain cells in the pancreas, called beta cells, don’t produce enough insulin to regulate sugar in the blood. The effects of this hormonal disorder are dramatic and far-reaching. Over time, the complications arising from diabetes can affect nearly every bodily system and rob those who suffer from it of their vision, their sensations and, eventually, their limbs. Type 1 diabetes is also known as juvenile diabetes and insulin-dependent diabetes because it generally starts in childhood, and is treated by administering insulin to regulate the blood sugar artificially. Type 2 diabetes, also called adult-onset diabetes, develops in adults. Until recently, the average age of onset was over 40, but doctors report that they are seeing more and more cases of type 2 diabetes in adolescents and young adults.
Research Avenues for Diabetes Cures
Currently, there is no cure for diabetes. Nearly all current treatments are aimed at symptom control. Many researchers looking for a diabetes cure are focusing their attention on developing ways to generate new beta cells, or enabling the body to generate new, efficient beta cells in the pancreas. Stem cells offer one of the best avenues toward that approach. Until recently, researchers believed that the cure for diabetes would be found through embryonic stem cell research because so-called adult stem cells, which are better called multipotent stem cells, were limited in the types of cells into which they could differentiate. In recent medical research, however, stem cell scientists have managed to take adult stem cells and reprogram them, essentially reverting them to the same potential and capabilities as embryonic stem cells – properly called pluripotent stem cells. If this line of research holds up to more scrutiny, it could soon be possible to harvest stem cells from a diabetic patient, modify them to revert them to pluripotent stem cells and inject them back into the patient, where they will become healthy, functioning beta cells.
Therapies similar to this are already being carried out in a number of countries around the world. In addition, there are a number of rejuvenation and regeneration therapies using adipose-derived stem cells – stem cells taken from the patient’s own fatty tissues—to relieve and improve many of the symptoms related to diabetes and its many complications.