SINGAPORE, Nov 20 - A possible treatment for diabetes in future could involve transplanting insulin-producing cells into patients.
Singapore scientists have found a way to mass-produce life-saving cells for diabetic mice and are hoping they can soon do the same for humans.
If they are successful, this could be a treatment for diabetic patients who don't get enough insulin in their bodies to break down glucose.
Scientists from Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star) and the National University of Singapore (NUS) have managed to coax master cells from mice, known as embryonic stem cells, to become pure insulin-producing cells.
When these cells were transplanted into diabetic mice with high blood glucose levels, the blood glucose levels of the animals fell. And when the transplanted cells were removed, the blood glucose levels of the mice would return to their original levels.
A bonus was that the researchers found that none of the diabetic mice with the tranplants developed tumours, something embryonic stem cells have been notoriously known to give rise to.
The scientists are now still trying to do the same with human embryonic stem cells. But for now, at least for the scientific community, the excitement is in being able to produce such a large number of purely insulin-producing cells, not mixed with other types of cells.
Said one of the scientists, Dr Lim Sai Kiang: "The challenge before was that while scientists were able to coax embryonic stem cells to become cells which produce insulin, the number of such cells produced was insufficient for effective treatment of diabetes and were always produced in an impure mixture together with other types of cells."
Already, this work is holding out hopes for those working in diabetes.
Professor Gordon Weir, from esteemed American health institutions, the Harvard Stem Cell Institute and Joslin Diabetes Centre said: "The amount of careful work done by this group of researchers is impressive.
"We need something to put into diabetic patients to treat their conditions and these findings tell us interesting things about the development of the cells that make and release insulin in the body."
Diabetes is the fifth most common medical condition diagnosed in Singapore and one of the six top killer diseases in the country. About 10 per cent of the population here has diabetes and this figure is likely to rise to 27 per cent by 2030, if the trend is not arrested.
The disease is characterised by the body's inability to break down glucose, leading to excess levels in the body's blood. The hormone, insulin, which is naturally produced in the pancreas, an organ located below the stomach, helps the body breaks down glucose.
But for diabetic patients, there is often insufficient insulin produced or the body's cells are unable respond to insulin, resulting in various cardiovascular complications such as kidney failure. Conventional treatment for the disease is for patients to inject themselves several times a day with insulin. - The Straits Times
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Great for Singapore!