Researchers say the injections of stem cells harvested from a patient's own blood may keep away type 1 diabetes, which afflicts millions of people who have to have daily shots of insulin. It is an autoimmune disorder in which the body attacks the pancreas, the organ that makes insulin-producing cells to regulate the amount of sugar in the blood.
As the pancreas fails to work properly to control blood sugar levels, it could lead to serious complications later in life, such as blindness and kidney failure.
The new study, which was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, says that that injections work by using the patient's own stem cells to replace the defective cells that cause the disease.
It is for the first time ever that any such treatment offers hope for diabetes patients to remain treatment-free for up to three years. According to study co-author Richard Burt of Northwestern University in Chicago, as of February, the new research has enabled one patient to be completely insulin free for 35 months.
Also, the stem cell cure is working on four patients for at least 21 months and seven patients for at least six months. Two more patients also responded late and were insulin-free for one and five months.
However, experts have warned that more research is needed to confirm the results and there could be hidden risks involved since the treatment involves destroying the patient's immune system before the patient receives the stem cells.
