Breakthrough offers hope of diabetes cure
pharmafile | November 14, 2003 | News story | |Â Â Â
Researchers in the US have succeeded in transforming cells from the spleen into insulin producing cells in mice, offering hope of a cure for patients with type 1 diabetes.
The team from the Massachusetts General Hospital published their findings in the journal Science, and say the breakthrough was in identifying a specific type of spleen cell lacking the 'CD45' molecule.
Denis Faustman, director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Immunobiology Laboratory who led the research said: "It's the cells without CD45 that are the precursors for pancreatic islets. They have a distinct function that has not previously been identified for the spleen."
The researchers had already demonstrated that injecting mice with diabetes with spleen cells could condition their immune systems to accept a transplant for the insulin-producing islet cells, but found the mice confounded expectations by producing islet cells themselves.
The findings, which have been published to coincide with World Diabetes Day, have been welcomed by Diabetes UK.
Dr Eleanor Kennedy, Diabetes UK research director said: "The results were potentially very exciting for people with diabetes, and noted that the new approach was in contrast to research focusing on embryonic stem cells.
"This new breakthrough reopens the debate on what other types of cells are capable of. The research is in the very earliest stages and a lot more work still needs to be done and Diabetes UK will be watching the progress with interest," she said.
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External links
International Diabetes Federation World Diabetes Day
