Diabetes mellitus is the most common endocrine disease. It can lead to such complications as cardiovascular disorders, stroke, and high blood pressure, kidney diseases, eye damage. But patients with diabetes can avoid these complications by getting effective therapy. Nowadays scientists try to find new treatment options for diabetes. The most perspective type of treatment is cell therapy.
Types of diabetes
Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease associated with high levels of sugar (glucose) in blood. That’s can happen when the body doesn’t produce enough insulin or doesn’t use it efficiently.
There are three main types of diabetes:
- Type I — occurs when pancreatic beta cells are unable to produce insulin. This is an autoimmune disease. It means that the immune system attacks its own pancreas and damages it. The causes of this disorder are still unknown.
- Type II — means that pancreatic beta cells produce insulin, but the tissues cannot use it efficiently.
- Gestational — this type occurs in pregnant women when their bodies become less sensitive to insulin.
Different types of diabetes should be treated in diverse ways. Patients with diabetes mellitus type I should get insulin injections during all their life. But the treatment of diabetes mellitus type II includes lifestyle modification and oral drug intake (rare — insulin injections) to maintain normal blood glucose levels.
There are also some new and perspective treatment options in diabetology, one of which is stem cell therapy for diabetes mellitus.
What are stem cells?
Our body consists of a million of different specialized cells. But also we have undifferentiated cells known as stem cells. Stem cells can divide and turn into blood, skin, muscle and all the other cell types.
The body uses these cells whenever it needs them. For example, if some organ is damaged stem cells move there and repair the tissue. This property of stem cells forms the basis of stem cell therapy.
Stem cells can be obtained from such sources as:
- The bone marrow of an adult person — a doctor takes a sample from the hip or pelvis. Than medics isolate stem cells from this bone marrow sample in the laboratory conditions.
- Peripheral blood of an adult person — a doctor takes a blood sample from a vein. Than medics separate stem cells from mature blood cells in the laboratory conditions.
- Cord blood — stem cells can be harvested from the umbilical cord blood after childbirth.
- Embryonic tissues — embryonic stem cells have the biggest potential to produce different cells type. But in most countries, embryonic stem cells are not used due to ethical considerations.
Currently, scientists are studying the possibility of using stem cells in various diseases. They also hope that cell therapy will help to heal from diabetes in the future.
Cell therapy of diabetes — what’s new?
Scientists have achieved significant results in stem cell therapy for diabetes mellitus. First thing, they took pluripotent stem cells from a patient with diabetes. These cells were reprogrammed and then differentiated into the insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas. New beta cells were transplanted to experimental mice with diabetes. As a result, new beta cells start producing insulin as a normal one!
Of course, the described technologies need to be improved. In particular, scientists are trying to find a way to protect new insulin-producing beta cells from attack by a patient’s immune system. Now scientists from Harvard stem cell institute are testing special devices for implantation that will protect beta cells. Metabolomics is another prospective scientific area that gives hope to patients with diabetes mellitus.
Where I can get cell therapy of diabetes?
Researchers continue to study the possibility of using pluripotent stem cells in fighting diabetes. But nowadays the final step of transforming pluripotent stem cells into the beta cells is not ready for humans yet.
Nevertheless, we can use the properties of ordinary stem cells from our bone marrow or peripheral blood. In this case, stem cells can help to repair diabetes-damaged tissues. Cell therapy can be especially effective in fighting diabetes complications, such as angiopathy and retinopathy. Also, cell therapy increases tissue sensitivity to insulin, that’s why patients with diabetes type II can achieve prolonged remission eventually.
The process of cell therapy includes:
- Comprehensive examination. If a patient hasn’t any contraindications, he can get cell therapy.
- A doctor takes samples from a patient’s bone or peripheral blood.
- A doctor separates stem cells from samples and studies them in laboratory conditions.
- The doctor introduces good quality stem cells into patient’s bloodstream or directly into the pancreas.
- After the procedure, a patient will stay in the clinic for a few days. During this period doctors monitor his health state, control glucose level and give him medications.
Cell therapy of diabetes is performed in many modern clinics, one of which is the Clinic of advanced biological medicine in Frankfurt am Main. The company Booking Health can help patients from all over the world to get the most modern treatment in leading German clinics. If you want to get cell therapy in Germany, we will organize your trip to the clinic as soon as possible.
