NurseWeek: Treatment cures juvenilediabetes in mice

Treatment cures juvenile diabetes in mice
Researchers coax pancreas cells to regrow

By Randy Dotinga
HealthScout Reporter
June 28, 2001


	You've read the article. Now tell us what you think. What to do Learn more about diabetes at the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Web site. Juvenile diabetes can cause many health problems. The American Diabetes Association offers fact sheets on Type I diabetes.

(HealthScout). When juvenile diabetes strikes, a child's immune system turns against itself and destroys pancreatic cells that regulate blood sugar. But a new treatment in mice seems to cure the disease by making the pancreas such a safe place that healthy cells regenerate.

"The outcome of this experiment is as good as it gets," says Dr. Denise Faustman, a professor at Harvard Medical School and co-author of a study of the new treatment.

It's much too early to tell if a cure is in the cards for the estimated 1 million Americans who suffer from juvenile-onset diabetes, also known as Type I diabetes, but Faustman says the findings are unprecedented.

She says scientists have focused on three major approaches to fighting juvenile diabetes.

The first is to prevent the disease by identifying which children will get it. Doctors then hope to prevent white blood cells -- part of the immune system -- from attacking so-called islet cells in the pancreas. The cells create insulin, which converts glucose into fuel. When the cells break down, glucose begins to poison the body.

The second approach is to transplant healthy islet cells into the body. And the third approach is to forget about a cure and simply try to control insulin levels through injections "to prevent heart attacks, blindness and losing your legs," she says.

Scientists didn't think that islet cells could regenerate, she says. "This was not even on the list of ways we could reverse the disease."

But the Harvard researchers found a double-barreled way to do that. They report their findings in the July 1 Journal of Clinical Investigation.

First, they triggered a naturally occurring protein called TNF-alpha, which destroyed the renegade immune cells. Then, they injected cells which essentially "re-educate" immune cells that are being primed to kill pancreatic cells.

The surprise was that the islet cells, which no longer faced danger from the immune system, regenerated themselves, making cell transplants unnecessary.

"That's the real miracle that was unexpected," Faustman says. "They effectively regrow the cells that they're missing, bypassing the need for other treatments."

Up to 75 percent of the treated mice had normal blood sugar levels more than three months after treatment.

A diabetes expert says the Harvard research is "exciting," but warns about possible side effects like fever.

"This offers a cure in the majority of the animals, but bearing in mind that not 100 percent were cured, there are some problems," says Dr. David Lau, director of the Julia McFarlane Diabetes Research Centre at the University of Calgary, in Canada. "What happens to the other 25 percent?"

Human testing, which may answer that question, may begin in about a year, Faustman says.

While the findings don't offer immediate help to people with Type II diabetes, they eventually may lead to a treatment of the disease and other autoimmune disorders like multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis, Faustman says.

This is a News story from HealthScout, a service of Rx Remedy, Inc.