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June 29, 2007

A Stem Cell Treatment for Diabetes

A clinical study demonstrates that effectiveness of a new stem cell treatment for juvenile diabetes:

Children with type 1 diabetes can have the severity of their disease reduced if they are infused with blood saved from their umbilical cords, a study has found. Scientists think the infusion resets the body's immune system, stopping it from destroying insulin-producing cells that are needed to control blood sugar levels.

"After only six months it is too early to tell how long the children will benefit from this therapy, but early signs indicate that it may have helped enhance blood glucose control and management, said Michael Haller of the University of Florida College of Medicine, who led the new research.

Note that the method uses the child's own stem cells - not those extracted from an embryo. This decreases the risk of the treatment while overcoming the ethical concern associated with destroying a human life. Here's more:

"The patients who received autologous cord blood infusions had better glycemic control, as evidenced by lower HbA1c, and that was statistically significant, and we also saw that they had lower insulin requirements compared with controls, also statistically significant," said Dr. Haller.

Co-author Desmond A. Schatz, M.D., also at the University of Florida, commented that "this is really the first cellular therapy in which we're taking one's own cells that are naïve to the potential environmental insult that triggers this disease."

[snip]

The investigators used unpaired t-tests to compare HbA1c and total daily insulin use between the groups from diagnosis to six months after infusion.

They found that the children who received cord blood infusions had lower average HbA1c levels at six months compared with controls, at 7.0% +1.77% for the infusion group over 28 total measurements, versus 8.04% + 0.8 over 108 measurements for controls (P=0.0031).

Insulin requirements in the children who received cord blood were also lower, with an average daily total of 0.45 + 0.23 U/kg compared with 0.69 + 0.24 for controls (P<0.0001).

A comparison of endogenous insulin function pre- and post-infusion also suggested that beta-cell function was preserved by the treatment. Three months after infusion, the average maximal stimulated C-peptide values increased in children who received cord blood, from 1.8 ng/ml prior to infusion, 1.9 ng/ml at three months, and a gradual fall to 1.39 ng/ml six months after infusion.

Even if the therapy proves its worth, it will likely be available only those who can afford the costs of collection of cord blood, which range from about $1,000 to $2,500, plus annual storage fees of $75 to $250.

Posted by Diabetologica at June 29, 2007 12:07 PM