Stem cell treatment for diabetes developed

United with Israel:

An Israeli team is developing a new method for treating Diabetes.

About 285 million people are living with diabetes worldwide. Several kinds of treatment options exist, but all of them have drawbacks. For example, insulin therapy can trigger everything from weight gain to hypoglycemia, and its administration must be constantly controlled and monitored by the patient.

But what if a diabetic patient’s own cells—extracted from mature tissue—could be turned into insulin-producing machines, secreting insulin automatically when needed? According to a biotech company named Orgenesis, this kind of cell therapy, known as autologous cell replacement, holds very real potential.

Orgenesis’s efforts have been inspired by the pioneering research of Sarah Ferber, Ph.D., who is Director of Molecular Endocrinology at Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer, Israel, and Chief Scientific Officer at Orgenesis.

In the treatment being developed by Dr. Ferber and Orgenesis, a standard liver biopsy is taken from the patient in a clinical center and sent to a laboratory. In the lab, the liver cells are treated with a special technique.

At the clinical center, the newly formed cells are then transplanted back to the patient’s liver where they secrete insulin. Since the initial liver cells were taken from the patient himself or herself, the chance of rejection is very limited. Orgenesis has successfully tested its technology in preclinical studies, and is working toward initiating clinical trials in humans.

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The plan to present the procedure to the US FDA for approval.  Current diabetes treatments tend to have side effects that can be counter productive.  All seem to revolve around keeping the blood sugar levels under control.  Learning to lead food labels and keep the carbs below 50 grams at each meal is a key.