Are Stem Cells the Next Frontier for diabetes treatment?
Charles A. Goldthwaite, Jr., Ph.D. Diabetes is a devastating disease that affects millions of people worldwide. The major forms of the disease are type 1 and type 2 diabetes. In type 1 diabetes, the body’s immune system aberrantly destroys the insulin-producing beta cells (b-cells) of the pancreas. Type 2 diabetes, the more common form, is characterized both by insulin resistance, a condition in which various tissues in the body no longer respond properly to insulin action, and by subsequent progressive decline in b-cell function to the point that the cells can no longer produce enough additional insulin to overcome the insulin resistance. Researchers are actively exploring cell replacement therapy as a potential strategy to treat type 1 diabetes, because patients with this disease have lost all or nearly all b-cell function. However, if a safe and cost-effective means for replenishing b-cells were developed, such a treatment strategy could also be useful for the larger population with
