Encapsulated beta cells give hope to diabetics
Doctors: stem cells helped suppress type 2 diabetes in mice
An international team of biologists announced the first case of successful use of stem cells to restore the sensitivity of diabetic mice to insulin and get rid of obesity and other symptoms of type II diabetes, as scientists reported in an article in the journal Stem Cell Reports (Bruin et al., Treating Diet-Induced Diabetes and Obesity with Human Embryonic Stem Cell-Derived Pancreatic Progenitor Cells and Antidiabetic Drugs, publicly available – VM).
"Success in our planned clinical trials of this technique will pave the way for its testing on patients suffering from type 2 diabetes. We hope that the strategy of replenishing insulin losses using stem cells will eventually help patients cope better with glucose spikes, which will prolong their lives," said Timothy Kieffer from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver (Canada).
Image of a mouse pancreas 29 weeks after transplantation of macro-encapsulated endocrine cells obtained from human embryonic stem cells. Immunofluorescence staining makes it possible to distinguish the inclusion of hormones: insulin, glucagon and somatostatin.
Jennifer Bruin's snapshot from the University of British Columbia press release: Stem cells show promise for reversing Type 2 diabetes – VM.According to Kieffer and his colleagues, the idea of using stem cells for the treatment of diabetes is not new – their colleagues have been successfully using cultures of such cells for a long time in experiments on the treatment of congenital type I diabetes, when the body simply stops producing hormone due to the destruction of special insulin islets in the pancreas.
However, according to scientists, no one has so far been able to use them to combat type 2 diabetes, which develops as a result of a decrease in the sensitivity of cells to insulin and which accounts for about 90% of patients.
Kiefer's group was able to solve this problem by learning how to grow "blanks" of beta cells that produce insulin molecules and pack them into special shells that allowed them to reach the pancreas and not get lost. Injection of such cells dramatically improved the condition of mice suffering from type 2 diabetes three months after the start of therapy, and parallel administration of antidiabetic drugs reduces this period to 1.5 months.
As these cells grew and spread, the body's sensitivity to insulin gradually increased and returned to relatively normal values close to those of healthy rodents. Such mice experienced fewer life-threatening spikes in blood glucose levels, and also, very unexpectedly, began to lose weight quickly and their weight gradually returned to normal.
Such an effect, as scientists emphasize, is not observed when diabetics start taking insulin for the first time in their lives – usually the opposite happens and patients get fat, not lose weight.
"Weight loss in rodents intrigued us, as many of the generally accepted strategies to combat diabetes lead to its increase. We need to do some more additional research in order to understand how cell transplantation causes weight loss," concludes Kieffer.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru23.03.2015