Type 1 diabetes is an auto-immune condition whereby the patient’s own immune system attacks the pancreatic islets, destroying them in the process. Since these islets are responsible for producing insulin in response to blood sugar (glucose) levels, the patient is thus required to externally inject insulin for the remainder of their life. That was the expected scenario, but it appears that this form of diabetes may soon be treatable, with one woman now being free of the condition for a year already, as reported in Nature, referencing an article by [Shusen Wang] et al. that describes the treatment and the one-year result.
Most notable with this study is that the researchers didn’t use the regular method to create pluripotent stem cells. These cells were extracted from the patient, to revert back to this earlier developmental stage. They were not modified using genes, but rather singular chemicals (PDF). The advantage of this is that it avoids having to modify the cell’s genomes, which could conceivably cause issues like cancer later on. This was one of the first time that this method was used in a human subject, with islet cells formed and about 1.5 million of them injected into the patient’s abdominal muscles, a novel site for this procedure.
This location made these islets easy to keep track of, and easier t ..
Support the originator by clicking the read the rest link below.
