Diabetes Breakthrough Could End Insulin Jabs

Scientists believe they have made a "giant leap forward" in their search for an effective treatment for Type 1 diabetes.

They hope it could eventually mean people with diabetes no longer need to inject themselves with insulin.

Diabetes is an autoimmune condition that causes the pancreas to stop producing insulin - the hormone that regulates blood glucose levels.

If the amount of glucose in the blood is too high, over time it can seriously damage the body's organs.

In this study, experts using human embryonic stem cells as a starting point have, for the first time, produced human insulin-producing beta cells.

These cells are the equivalent in almost every way to normally functioning beta cells and have been produced in the kind of massive quantities needed for cell transplantation and pharmaceutical purposes.

The stem cell-derived beta cells are currently undergoing trials in animal models, including non-human primates.

Doug Melton, the Xander University Professor at Harvard University, who led the work, said he hopes clinical trials could be carried out on humans within a few years.

Professor Melton, who is also co-director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, said the device being tested has so far protected beta cells implanted in mice from immune attack for many months.

"There have been previous reports of other labs deriving beta cell types from stem cells, no other group has produced mature beta cells as suitable for use in patients," he said.

"The biggest hurdle has been to get to glucose-sensing, insulin-secreting beta cells, and that's what our group has done.

"We are now just one pre-clinical step away from the finish line."

Cell transplantation as a treatment for diabetes is still essentially experimental and has been available to only a very small number of patients.

It uses cells from dead bodies and requires the use of powerful drugs to suppress a person's immune system.

Professor Elaine Fuchs, of Rockefeller University, described the findings as "one of the most important advances to date in the stem-cell field".

"For decades, researchers have tried to generate human pancreatic beta cells that could be cultured and passaged long term under conditions where they produce insulin.

"(Professor) Melton and his colleagues have now overcome this hurdle and opened the door for drug discovery and transplantation therapy in diabetes," she said.

Around 10% of all diabetes is Type 1 but it is the most common type of childhood diabetes.

A report on the work is published in the journal Cell .