Hundreds of millions of people from around the world have been provided with fresh hope as scientists managed to cure diabetes in mice.
While some 400 million people across the globe suffer from diabetes, researchers at St. Louis’ Washington University School of Medicine have successfully treated the condition in mice by creating insulin-producing cells from human stem cells.
As their study proved, the converted cells have the ability to rapidly produce required amounts of insulin and act as a cure for diabetes in mice.
“These mice had very severe diabetes with blood sugar readings of more than 500 milligrams per deciliter of blood — levels that could be fatal for a person — and when we gave the mice the insulin-secreting cells, within two weeks their blood glucose levels had returned to normal and stayed that way for many months,” Dr. Jeffrey R. Millman, a principal investigator and an assistant professor, said.
While the scientists have found a way to convert human stem cells years ago, the method was deemed ineffective because the converted cells couldn’t help manage diabetes due to their flaws.
“A common problem when you’re trying to transform a human stem cell into an insulin-producing beta cell — or a neuron or a heart cell —is that you also produce other cells that you don’t want,” Dr. Millman added in a statement.
“In the case of beta cells, we might get other types of pancreas cells or liver cells. The more off-target cells you get, the less therapeutically relevant cells you have.
“You need about a billion beta cells to cure a person of diabetes. But if a quarter of the cells you make are actually liver cells or other pancreas cells, instead of needing a billion cells, you’ll need 1.25 billion cells. It makes curing the disease 25% more difficult.”
While the potential cure for diabetes is still far away, scientists remain positive as this method represents the first time diabetes was cured in mammals. For now, the scientists will perform tests on larger animals.
What are your thoughts on this discovery? Let us know in the comments and don’t forget to SHARE this post with your family and friends and follow us on Facebook for more news and stories!
Replaced!