Stem Cell Research on Diabetes

Diabetes is not a disease to be taken lightly. With almost 200,000 diabetes-related deaths reported in the United States each year, diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death. Almost 5.9 percent of the U.S. population has diabetes, meaning that almost 16 million people have diabetes in the United States. There are different types of diabetes, all dealing with glucose in the bloodstream being abnormally high, but there are two main types: type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes. Stem cell research is different for the two types.

Type 1 Diabetes

• People with type 1 diabetes have to check their glucose throughout the day.

  Type 1 diabetes normally occurs in children and young adults. It is often referred to as juvenile-onset diabetes and is a genetic ailment that can be passed on. The body's own immune system thinks the islet cells of the pancreas, the insulin-producing cells, are foreign. and thus destroys those cells, also destroying the body's ability to produce insulin. This leads to glucose building up in the blood and causing significant problems. People with type 1 diabetes are affected for life. They are forced to take insulin several times throughout the day and keep close track of their blood glucose concentration. Keeping the concentrations stable helps prevent some of the secondary effects of type 1 diabetes, such as heart disease or retinopathy. Stem cell research focuses on the pancreas and the secondary problems of type 1 diabetes.

Type 2 Diabetes

• Type 2 diabetes also results in a buildup of glucose in the bloodstream.

  Type 2 diabetes is often referred to as adult onset diabetes, as it isn't necessarily a genetic condition and is brought on by poor health and a family history of poor health and diabetes. It is found mainly in people who are older and heavier. The afflicted person's body stops using insulin properly, developing an insulin resistance, and like type 1 diabetes, the glucose starts to build up in the blood. Type 2 diabetes is managed through oral medication, diet and exercise. If left untended, type 2 diabetes can become so serious that insulin therapy is absolutely necessary. Type 2 diabetes is not the main focus for stem cell-based research, as it can be addressed with a healthy lifestyle and awareness.

Solutions

• Pancreas transplants require a lifetime of potentially life-threatening drugs.

  There is no cure yet for type 1 diabetes, but the most widely used approach is to perform a pancreas transplant. This requires the patient to take immunosuppressant drugs for the rest of his or her life, making the patient susceptible to other diseases. Another promising treatment is to do a specific islet cell transplant. Both treatments suffer from a lack of donor tissue, something that stem cell researchers want to fix.

Cell-Based Therapies

• Cell-based therapies are in the research phases.

  Stem cell researchers aim to develop stem cells that self-renew and can turn into the type of cell that the patient needs, though the exact cells needed are still uncertain. Bernat Soria and other colleagues have found that beta cells cultured without other types of islet cells around are less efficient than full clusters of islet cells of all different types. The current focus is to develop a system of creating whole islet clusters out of stem cells.

Fetal and Adult Cells

• Research is still in the testing phases.

  Current research has islet cells taken from fetal tissue or adult tissue. With fetal tissue cells, researchers found when they transplanted the specific cells needed, the cells did worse than when they transplanted the whole culture so it could develop into islet tissue. With adult tissue, researchers culture the islet cells in human cadavers and help it develop into a material they can transplant. There are several different potential approaches, but the current state of the research is still in testing, especially with mice. Adult tissue research has an approach with the transplantation of cells from the patient's own duct cells, hoped to help people suffering from type 2 diabetes. Research with adult cells is not conclusive enough to claim a cure for diabetes yet.

Embryonic Stem Cell Research

• Research is promising, but it hasn't found a solution yet.

  Embryonic stem cell research has taken off in countries other than the United States due to the laws enacted to prevent it. In Spain, researchers used the embryonic stem cells from mice and were able to engineer cells that developed into insulin-producing cells. In Germany, researchers developed a method for killing off all but the insulin-producing cells, ensuring the patient would not develop cancer from cells that hadn't developed a function yet. In Israel, research showed that human embryonic stem cells could be tampered with until they produced the PDX-1 gene, a gene that helps control insulin. All of the current research is promising, but the human embryonic stem cell system has not yet been used to produce working insulin-producing islets that are viable for transplantation.