Type 1, or insulin-dependent, diabetes was partly reversed in dogs using adult stem cells, according to a new study being presented Tuesday, June 5, at The Endocrine Society’s 89th Annual Meeting in Toronto.

Dr. Moghazy Ali Mahgoub, professor of internal medicine and endocrinology at Ain Shams University in Cairo, Egypt, chemically induced type 1 diabetes in six dogs. He and his co-workers took one component of the white blood cells known as monocytes from the dogs. They then added growth factors to convert stem cells to new pancreatic cells. Finally, the researchers injected these cells into the dogs. The goal was to create new pancreatic cells that would produce insulin and cure diabetes.

Diabetes occurs when the pancreas, a gland behind the stomach, does not produce enough of the hormone insulin. The pancreatic cells that normally produce insulin are called islet cells, but in type 1 diabetes these cells are depleted. The disorder results in blood glucose, or sugar, levels that are higher than normal. Type 1 diabetes, which in humans affects primarily children and adolescents, requires daily insulin therapy to control blood sugar.

In this study, soon after treatment with the new islet (“neoislet”) cells, four of the diabetic dogs had blood sugar levels that were normal or near normal, and they no longer needed insulin therapy. A fifth dog needed a small dose of insulin, possibly because it received an insufficient dose of cells. There were no side effects of therapy. One dog died, but the cause could not be explained. In the remaining dogs, the new islet cells proved to still be producing insulin 50 days after treatment.

Adult stem cells, which come from the transplant recipient, have the advantage of the recipient not needing lifelong immune suppression, as does islet cell transplantation from donors, Mahgoub said. It also avoids the ethical issues surrounding use of embryonic and fetal stem cells.

Mahgoub and his co-workers will perform more studies in dogs to find the optimal number of new islet cells to implant that will completely normalize blood sugar levels.

“I believe that this approach, with further testing, could be applied one day to humans with type 1 diabetes and some people with type 2 diabetes who are insulin dependent,” he said.

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