Diabetes – A Closer Look at Stem Cells

How is diabetes treated?

Type 1 diabetes patients are given insulin to help them control their glucose levels. These patients, however, often struggle to optimally balance their blood sugar and they need to monitor their blood sugar multiple times a day. New technologies, such as multiple types of insulin pumps, have greatly improved treatment for some people, enabling the delivery of individualized doses or a steady stream of insulin, but they cannot precisely mimic the healthy human bodys constant, sophisticated monitoring and adjusting of insulin production provided by normal beta cells.

Type 2 diabetes can sometimes be controlled with diet and exercise. However, many people with type 2 diabetes eventually have to take insulin injections to control blood sugar levels and/or other medications to deal with complications from the disease

There have been great advances in reducing the toll from diabetes-related complications through improvements in insulin administration and glucose monitoring, but the ideal treatment will be the replacement of the missing insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells. Since 1999, several hundred people with type 1 diabetes have received islet transplants. Many of these people have been able to stop taking insulin for at least a few months or years. However, most patients have to begin taking insulin again within four years after the procedure. Relatively few transplants are done because of the short supply of islets, the need for immunosuppression, and the expense.

Transplants generally are less effective in type 2 diabetes patients because they require more islets due to their resistance to insulin.

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Diabetes - A Closer Look at Stem Cells