‘Rebuilt’ immune system shakes off diabetes:
Julio Voltarelli, at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil, and colleagues recruited 15 people aged 14 to 31 years who had recently been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Roughly 60% to 80% of these patients’ insulin-producing cells had been destroyed by the time of their diagnosis, and all needed regular insulin shots.The researchers removed bone marrow stem cells from the patients, who were then given drugs such as cytotoxan to wipe out their immune cells. Without an immune system, the patients were vulnerable to infection and so they were given antibiotics and kept in an isolation ward. They participants did not undergo radiation treatment – as leukaemia patients often do as part of a bone marrow transplant – and so had fewer side effects and less risk of organ damage.
Two weeks later, the patients received infusions of their own stem cells into their bloodstream via the jugular vein, which re-established their immune systems.
Throughout this time and following the stem cell transplant, the research team continued taking blood samples to assess how much insulin each patient required.
Of the 15 patients, 12 no longer needed insulin shots within a few days of undergoing the procedure. One patient from the group had a relapse and needed to take insulin for one year, before becoming insulin-independent again – and has remained this way for 5 months.
Of the remaining two participants, one stopped needing insulin shots for one year after the transplant but has spent the past two months back on the shots, and the final participant’s diabetes did not respond to the stem cell treatment.
Those who responded to the treatment have not needed insulin shots – so far, for an average 18 months – and had not relapsed at the time of study publication. One patient had gone as long as 35 months without needing insulin therapy. “It may be that they become insulin-free for life. We don’t know,” says Voltarelli.