Stem Cell Therapy for Diabetes the light of hope for Diabetic Patient

What is Stem Cell?

Stem cells are undifferentiated cells.  The stem cells are capable of differentiating into special cells.

These Stem Cells can be obtained from two different sources:

1. Embryonic Stem Cells- These Stem Cells are formed during embryonic developments when the embryo is in blastocyst phase of development.  

2. Adult Stem Cells- These Stem Cells are obtained from adult tissues.  

The Stem Cells are classified according to their potency to differentiate into different cell types, such as, bones, skin, or muscle cells etc.  

What is Stem Cell Therapy?

Stem Cell therapy is to use Stem Cells to treat a particular disease or body condition.  Stem Cell treatments are used to treat or prevent certain diseases or conditions which are not treatable by conventional methods of treatment. Stem Cell treatment is also considered as a potential preventive measure to check certain physical ailments from developing.

The most widely used Stem Cell Treatment is   Bone Marrow Transplant. The most common source of Stem Cells is Umbilical Cord Blood, which can be stored and preserved for future use.  

Stem Cell Therapy for Diabetes

Any type of Diabetes is a lifelong disease. The number of children suffering from Type 1 Juvenile Diabetes is on the increase.  Diabetes can be controlled but there is no cure for Diabetes.  

Blood sugar is essential to provide energy to the body cells.  The sugar in the blood is in the form of Glucose. The hormone insulin is responsible to control the level of Glucose in blood.  This insulin is made by beta cells, situated as clusters, called islets of Langerhans, in Pancreas.  

Production of insulin is hampered if these beta cells do not work properly. The beta cells may be absent or non functional since birth, causing Type 1 Diabetes. Or the beta cells have less power to produce required amount of insulin at a later stage, causing Type 2 Diabetes.  The level of glucose in blood becomes uncontrolled in both the cases and insulin is needed to be administered parentally from outside the body to control blood sugar level.

There is no clinically proven stem cell treatment for Diabetes.  Beta cells cannot be manufactured in laboratories. Otherwise it would have been very easy to treat Diabetes by transplanting the beta cells from laboratory. Though attempts are being made to mature Pluripotent Stem Cells into beta cells in the laboratory to be used as stem cell therapy for Diabetes.  Pluripotent cells have the capacity to produce any type of cells in the body and current medical research is going on to produce fully functional beta cells from Pluripotent cells from either embryonic stem cells or induced Pluripotent cells.   

It is considered possible to treat Type 1 Diabetes with Stem Cell therapy.  Isolated Islet cells may be transplanted in the patient. These isolated islet cells contain beta cells. This transplant can regain control of blood sugar management by producing natural insulin.

Transplant of a whole Pancreas from a donor is also found to be an effective treatment of Type 1 Diabetes.  The natural insulin thus produced by newly transplanted organ or cells eliminates the need of administering insulin.        

Keep Reading to Know more about Stem Cell Therapy, Autism Treatment & Diabetes Treatment and many more other Information.