Stem Cells & Diabetes

Stem cells are cells with the unique ability to develop into specialized cell types in the body. Diabetes is a common life-long condition and the number of children being diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes is increasing. The symptoms can be controlled but there is no cure. For many, diabetes means living with daily insulin injections and the possibility of long-term damage to their health resulting in heart attack, high blood pressure, kidney failure, and blindness etc. In 2016, an estimated 1.6 million deaths were directly caused by diabetes. Hence, let us learn the basics of what is Stem cells, diabetes, diabetes types, stem cells, stem cells challenges, stem cells research, and touch therapy of Siddha Spirituality of Swami Hardas Life System. It would be quite beneficial to solve diabetes problems with touch therapy for free, without money and medicines.

All the cells in your body need energy. This energy is carried around the body as sugar (glucose) in the blood. There are several types of diabetes. What they all have in common is a problem with regulating normal levels of sugar in the blood.

Normally, blood sugar levels are controlled by the release of the hormone insulin. Insulin is made by cells in the pancreas called beta cells that are arranged into clusters together with other pancreas cells. These clusters are called islets of Langerhans. In one human pancreas, there are roughly one million islets.

Diabetes

When blood glucose (sugar) levels rise, beta cells in the pancreas release insulin. Insulin tells cells throughout the body to take up glucose from the blood.

In Type 1 diabetes, the immune system destroys beta cells. In Type 2 diabetes, cells do not take up enough glucose, either because they are insensitive to insulin or too little insulin is produced.

Type 1 diabetes patients require daily blood testing and insulin shots.

Scientists have successfully used pluripotent stem cells to produce glucose-responding cells that release insulin, like beta cells. Clinical trials of these cells are underway.

Diabetes key facts

• The number of people with diabetes has risen from 108 million in 1980 to 422 million in 2014.
• The global prevalence of diabetes among adults over 18 years of age has risen from 4.7% in 1980 to 8.5% in 2014.
• Diabetes prevalence has been rising more rapidly in middle- and low-income countries.
• Diabetes is a major cause of blindness, kidney failure, heart attacks, stroke, and lower limb amputation.
• In 2016, an estimated 1.6 million deaths were directly caused by diabetes. Another 2.2 million deaths were attributable to high blood glucose in 2012.
• Almost half of all deaths attributable to high blood glucose occur before the age of 70 years. WHO estimates that diabetes was the seventh leading cause of death in 2016.
• A healthy diet, regular physical activity, maintaining normal body weight and avoiding tobacco use are ways to prevent or delay the onset of type 2 diabetes.
• Diabetes can be treated and its consequences avoided or delayed with diet, physical activity, medication and regular screening and treatment for complications.

Diabetes types

There are several types of diabetes. What they all have in common is a problem with regulating normal levels of sugar in the blood.

The most common types of diabetes are:

Type 1 diabetes occurs when the body’s immune system damages and then destroys beta cells. This means the levels of sugar in the blood stay high all the time, which can lead to long-term damage to the body.

Type 2 diabetes occurs when insulin no longer works correctly as a signal to the body’s cells that sugar should be absorbed. This might be because cells are unresponsive to insulin, or that beta cells are producing too much or too little insulin, or a combination of both of these cases.

Stem cell therapy for diabetes

There are currently no proven treatments for diabetes using stem cells. If beta cells could be made in the lab it could solve the problem of obtaining the right number of functional islets for future transplantation needs.

Stem cell research

Diabetes is quite well understood. However, the causes of diabetes are not. Research on stem cells is still being conducted on what triggers the immune system to destroy beta cells in Type 1 diabetes.

Current research is examining the use of stem cells as a way to create beta cells that can be transplanted into patients with Type 1 diabetes.

Clinical trials are presently taking place with devices/capsules that protect transplanted stem cells-derived precursor cells of beta cells from the patient’s immune system.

Researchers are also interested in the possibility of using drugs to promote cells in a patient’s pancreas to naturally make more beta cells.

Stem cells challenges

Autoimmunity is a big challenge for Type 1 diabetes. 

Thus, treatments must consider how to prevent new beta cells from being targeted. Typically this has involved immune suppressants, which have an unfortunate side effect of increasing the risk of infection.

Current approaches to make new beta cells for therapy

• Mature human pluripotent stem cells into beta cells in the lab, which are transplanted into diabetic patients.
• Mature beta cells in the lab from other types of cells, for example, liver cells, which are transplanted into diabetic patients.
• Use drugs to trigger cells in the diabetic patient’s own pancreas to produce new beta cells.

And, for all of these approaches ongoing research is exploring:

• How can we protect the cells from being attacked by the immune system once they have been transplanted?

Making beta cells from pluripotent stem cells

Pluripotent stem cells can make any cell type in the body and researchers are exploring how to direct these to make fully functional beta cells. Such cells could replace the scarce source of donor pancreatic islets of Langerhans.

Researchers have so far succeeded in producing cells from human pluripotent stem cells that respond to glucose in a similar way to normal beta cells both in the laboratory and in mice.

Moreover, when transplanted in diabetic mice glucose levels become normalized. 

Making beta cells from other cells

Some researchers think it might be possible to encourage cells already present in the patient’s pancreas to make new beta cells – a process normally referred to as regeneration. Whether Stem cells exist in the pancreas is not known but beta cell precursors have been found in mice.

Some researchers hope that if these precursors exist in the human pancreas that they may be able to find drugs that convert them into new beta cells in patients. Obviously, even if this would be possible one would also have to prevent the autoimmune destruction of the new-born beta cells.

These efforts are still experimental in nature and have not reached a point where clinical trials are close.

Reference: https://www.eurostemcell.org/diabetes-how-could-stem-cells-help