(Ivanhoe Newswire) – Patients with type 1 diabetes may be able to reverse
their disease with stem cell transplantation.
More than three years after treatment, the majority of patients who underwent
autologous nonmyeloablative hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT)
became insulin-free, with good glycemic control and increased C-peptide levels.
Using a patient’s own blood stem cells, HSCT removes and transplants the stem
cells, then returns them to the patient by intravenous injection. After
treatment, more than 86 percent of patients experienced time free from insulin
for an average of 31 months. Most patients were also able to achieve good
glycemic control.
"At the present time, autologous nonmyeloablative HSCT remains the only
treatment capable of reversing type 1 [diabetes] in humans, " the study authors
wrote. "Randomized controlled trials and further biological studies are
necessary to confirm the role of this treatment in changing the natural history
of type 1 [diabetes]."
More studies will be conducted to investigate the effectiveness of HSCT for the
treatment of type 1 diabetes.
SOURCE: The Journal of the American Medical Association, 2009;301[15]:1573-1579
