Stem cell therapy for diabetes new hope for type 1 patients

by Stem Web
Posted: Dec 29, 2018

The human body requires energy to function. This energy is provided by blood sugar. This blood sugar is in form of Glucose present in human blood. This blood sugar is to be controlled and maintained to a certain level in the blood. In a normal person, this blood sugar level ranges from 70 mg to 110 mg/dl while fasting and from 110 mg to 140 mg/dl, 2 hours after eating. Anything beyond that is considered as uncontrolled blood sugar in the person. Such a condition is called Diabetes and needs to be treated regularly and religiously.

This blood sugar level in the body is controlled by a hormone, known as Insulin, produced by beta cells in Islets of Langerhans, in the pancreas of a person. Diabetes is a disease in which the patient’s body’s capacity to produce adequate amount of Insulin is reduced or lost, or the patient’s body has lost the ability to respond to the hormone, Insulin. This situation leads to an alarmingly abnormal metabolic condition in the patient’s body where abnormal metabolism of carbohydrate results in raised level of Glucose in the patient’s blood, known as hyperglycemia. Sometimes the blood glucose level falls much below normal, a condition known as hypoglycemia. Both these abnormally increased or decreased, uncontrolled levels of glucose in the diabetic patient’s blood may result in serious consequences, including patient going into coma or even death.

Types of Diabetes

Diabetes has been classified into two types. In the first type, it is called Type 1 Diabetes or Juvenile Diabetes. In these cases, the hormone Insulin is not formed in the baby, from the very beginning, since the birth of the child. The patient has to be given Insulin supply supplementation before every meal through parental route, through injections. In the second type of Diabetes, called Diabetes Mellitus Type 2, is visible after some years of age, may be during late thirties or forties, or even later than that. In these cases, the patient’s body loses the ability to respond to Insulin. Here, these cases are managed by oral medications, which improve body’s response to Insulin or enhance Insulin production by Beta cells.

Cure for Diabetes

In both types of Diabetes, the patients have to remain on Insulin therapy as body condition can never be normalized by restoration of normal Insulin production or normal body response to Insulin. In some cases, transplantation of Pancreas from a donor has been tried with little or no result. Strict diet control, regular exercises to keep blood glucose level down and medications are lifelong therapy for patients suffering from Diabetes of any type.