Cord Blood Stem Cells against Type 1 Diabetes
The development of type 1 diabetes is the result of the destruction of insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas under the influence of its own immune system. As a result, the production of the hormone insulin stops in the body, which leads to an increase in blood glucose levels to concentrations that are harmful to various organs.
Researchers from the University of Illinois, working under the guidance of Dr. Yong Zhao, in experiments on mice and cells of diabetic patients, have shown that multipotent cells isolated from umbilical cord blood are able to restrain the development of autoimmune reactions by influencing the activity of regulatory T cells and clones of T lymphocytes specific to insulin-producing cells of the pancreas.
(Umbilical cord blood is collected from the placenta and umbilical cord, usually destroyed after the birth of a child, and contains a large number of stem cells suitable for therapeutic use.)
The authors have developed a procedure called "stem cell learning therapy". It consists in the fact that the blood of a patient with diabetes circulates in a closed system, with the help of which lymphocytes are isolated from whole blood, subsequently cultured for 2-3 hours together with stem cells isolated from the umbilical cord blood of healthy donors. After that, the "retrained" lymphocytes are returned to the patient's bloodstream.
A small clinical study of the developed approach involved 15 patients aged 15-41 years (average age 29 years), who at the time of the study were diagnosed with type 1 diabetes from 1 to 21 years (average 8 years).
All but three participants (control group) underwent stem cell training therapy once. The control group underwent a similar procedure, but without the use of stem cells.
At the time of the study, half of the patients in the experimental group had residual activity of pancreatic beta cells (type 1 diabetes of moderate severity). No beta cell activity was detected in the remaining 6 patients of this group (severe type 1 diabetes).
The authors analyzed the condition of patients 4, 12, 24 and 40 weeks after treatment. The results showed that 12 weeks after the procedure, the required dose of insulin in patients with moderate and severe diabetes decreased by an average of 38% and 25%, respectively. No such progress was observed in the control group.
In all patients who underwent stem cell training therapy, there was also an increase in the concentration in the blood of C-peptide, a biomarker used to determine the activity of functioning of insulin–producing beta cells. C-peptide is a fragment of a protein molecule that is a byproduct of insulin production in the pancreas.
The indicators of the C-peptide content in the blood continued to improve until the 24th week after the procedure and did not fall to the baseline values until the end of the study (within 40 weeks).
At the same time, normalization of the functioning of the immune system was observed in patients, including such indicators as the level of tumor necrosis factor-beta-1, expression of costimulating molecules CD28 and ICOS; as well as the ratio of concentrations of cytokines synthesized by different populations of T-helpers. Dr. Zhao believes that the beneficial effect of umbilical cord blood stem cells is based on the expression of the AIRE molecule on their surface, which acts as a regulator of autoimmune processes, the suppression of which allows the beta cells of the pancreas to recover.
Article by Yong Zhao et al. Reversal of type 1 diabetes via islet beta cell regeneration following immune modulation by cord blood-derived multipotent stem cells is published in the journal BMC Medicine.
Evgeniya Ryabtseva
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru According to Medical News Today: Type 1 Diabetes Reversed With Stem Cells From Cord Blood.
16.01.2012