Diabetes Treatment: Stem cells + Blood vessel Growth Stimulator
Adult stem cells may be the key to curing Type 1 diabetes
NanoNewsNet based on the materials of the MU Institute for Clinical and Translational Science:
Adult Stem Cells Could Hold Key to Creating Cure for Type 1 DiabetesThe lives of millions of people with type 1 diabetes depend on daily insulin injections.
All these patients will die without injections, because their immune system attacks the insulin-producing cells that it would seem to protect. A scientist from the University of Missouri (University of Missouri, MU) found that this attack causes more damage to the pancreas than previously thought. His discovery could lead to the development of a new treatment method combining adult stem cells and a promising new drug.
The results of the study by American scientists are published in the current online issue of the journal Diabetes, the flagship scientific publication of the American Diabetes Association: Wan et al., Recovery from Overt Type 1 Diabetes Ensures When Immune Tolerance and b Cell Formation Are Coupled with Regeneration of Endothelial Cells in the Pancreatic Islets.
"We have found that type 1 diabetes destroys not only insulin-producing cells, but also the blood vessels that feed them," says study leader Habib Zaghouani, PhD, head of the Department of Pediatrics at the MU School of Medicine. "Having realized how important blood vessels are for insulin production, we have developed a treatment method that combines the drug we developed and adult bone marrow stem cells. The drug stops the attack of the immune system, and stem cells form new blood vessels that help insulin-producing cells grow and multiply."
Surrounded by an army of students and a colony of mice, Dr. Zaguani has spent the last 12 years in his laboratory at MU studying autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes. Often called juvenile, this type of diabetes is fraught with numerous complications, including the development of cardiovascular diseases, kidney and nerve damage, osteoporosis and blindness.
Type 1 diabetes affects the pancreas. The hand-sized organ located in the abdominal cavity is populated by clusters of cells called Langerhans islands. The islets contain beta cells that produce insulin, which controls blood sugar levels. In people with type 1 diabetes, beta cells stop synthesizing insulin because they are attacked and destroyed by the body's immune system.
By hitting beta cells, the immune system also strikes the capillaries that provide blood flow to the islets and carry away toxic metabolic products from them. The damage caused to the smallest blood vessels led Dr. Zaguani to think about the possibility of a new approach to the cure of this disease.
In previous studies, Zaguani and his group developed a drug against type 1 diabetes called Ig-GAD2. They found that taking this drug stops the immune system's attack on beta cells, but this effect is not enough to reverse the disease. In his latest work, Zaguani used Ig-GAD2 and then injected adult bone marrow stem cells into the pancreas – in the hope that the stem cells would develop into beta cells.
"The combination of Ig-GAD2 and bone marrow cells has produced results in the formation of new beta cells, but not in the way we expected," Dr. Zaguani continues. "We thought that the bone marrow cells would develop directly into beta cells. Instead, the introduction of bone marrow cells led to the growth of new blood vessels, and it was these blood vessels that contributed to the formation of new beta cells. In other words, we came to the conclusion that in order to cure type 1 diabetes, it is necessary to restore blood vessels, which will allow the patient's beta cells to grow and provide insulin to the whole body."
Dr. Zaguani is applying for a patent for his promising method of treatment and hopes to transfer his discovery to the clinic. He continues his research with the financial support of the National Institutes of Health of the USA and MU.
"This is extremely interesting for our research group," the scientist concludes. "Our discovery about the importance of restoring blood vessels can be used to treat not only type 1 diabetes, but also a number of other autoimmune diseases."
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru04.06.2013