Type 1 Diabetes Reversed in Mice

St. Louis researchers say that by using drugs they reversed type 1 diabetes in mice, but similar results in humans are uncertain.

Study leader Dr. Emil Unanue, a Washington University immunologist, says the approach involves stopping the immune system before it killed the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Friday.

However, the researchers, who also added adult stem cells from the spleen into the mouse pancreas, did not find spleen cells morphing into a source of new pancreatic cells, contrary to what Harvard University researchers reported finding three years ago.

Type 1 diabetes, or juvenile disease, occurs when T-cells of the immune system attack pancreatic cells that make insulin, a hormone that controls blood sugar levels.

The findings are published in journal Science.