Monthly Archives: May 2013

May 29, 2013 Millions of people with type 1 diabetes depend on daily insulin injections to survive. They would die without the shots because their immune system attacks the very insulin-producing cells it was designed to protect. Now, a University of Missouri scientist has discovered that this attack causes more damage than scientists realized. The revelation is leading to a potential cure that combines adult stem cells with a promising new drug.

The discovery is reported in the current online issue of Diabetes, the American Diabetes Association's flagship research publication. Habib Zaghouani, PhD, J. Lavenia Edwards Chair in Pediatrics, leads the research with his team at the MU School of Medicine.

"We discovered that type 1 diabetes destroys not only insulin-producing cells but also blood vessels that support them," Zaghouani said. "When we realized how important the blood vessels were to insulin production, we developed a cure that combines a drug we created with adult stem cells from bone marrow. The drug stops the immune system attack, and the stem cells generate new blood vessels that help insulin-producing cells to multiply and thrive."

Surrounded by an army of students and a colony of mice, Zaghouani has spent the past 12 years in his lab at MU studying autoimmune diseases like type 1 diabetes. Often called juvenile diabetes, the disease can lead to numerous complications, including cardiovascular disease, kidney damage, nerve damage, osteoporosis and blindness.

Type 1 diabetes attacks the pancreas. The organ, which is about the size of a hand and located in the abdomen, houses cell clusters called islets. Islets contain beta cells that make insulin, which controls blood sugar levels. In people with type 1 diabetes, beta cells no longer make insulin because the body's immune system has attacked and destroyed them.

When the immune system strikes the beta cells, the attack causes collateral damage to capillaries that carry blood to and from the islets. The damage done to the tiny blood vessels led Zaghouani on a new path toward a cure.

In previous studies, Zaghouani and his team developed a drug against type 1 diabetes called Ig-GAD2. They found that treatment with the drug stopped the immune system from attacking beta cells, but too few beta cells survived the attack to reverse the disease. In his latest study, Zaghouani used Ig-GAD2 and then injected adult stem cells from bone marrow into the pancreas in the hope that the stem cells would evolve into beta cells.

"The combination of Ig-GAD2 and bone marrow cells did result in production of new beta cells, but not in the way we expected," Zaghouani said. "We thought the bone marrow cells would evolve directly into beta cells. Instead, the bone marrow cells led to growth of new blood vessels, and it was the blood vessels that facilitated reproduction of new beta cells. In other words, we discovered that to cure type 1 diabetes, we need to repair the blood vessels that allow the subject's beta cells to grow and distribute insulin throughout the body."

Zaghouani is pursuing a patent for his promising treatment and hopes to translate his discovery from use in mice to humans. He is continuing his research with funding from the National Institutes of Health and MU.

"This is extremely exciting for our research team," he said. "Our discovery about the importance of restoring blood vessels has the potential to be applied not only to type 1 diabetes but also a number of other autoimmune diseases."

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Adult stem cells could hold key to cure type 1 diabetes

May 30, 2013

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports Your Universe Online

Damage caused to insulin-producing cells by the immune systems of type 1 diabetes patients could be more damaging than previously believed, but a University of Missouri scientist believes that their new discovery could lead to the development of a potential cure for the condition.

Individuals suffering from type 1 diabetes rely upon their daily insulin injections in order to survive, and without those shots their bodys defense system would attack the very cells that they were designed to protect.

Now, Dr. Habib Zaghouani of the MU School of Medicine reports that these types of attacks can be more harmful than scientists had realized, and that this research could lead to improved treatment options featuring a combination of a promising new diabetes drug and adult stem cells.

We discovered that type 1 diabetes destroys not only insulin-producing cells but also blood vessels that support them, Dr. Zaghouani, who details his findings in the current online edition of the journal Diabetes, said in a statement.

When we realized how important the blood vessels were to insulin production, we developed a cure that combines a drug we created with adult stem cells from bone marrow, he added. The drug stops the immune system attack, and the stem cells generate new blood vessels that help insulin-producing cells to multiply and thrive.

Dr. Zaghouani has spent the last dozen years studying autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes, which is also known as juvenile diabetes and can result in cardiovascular disease, kidney and nerve damage, osteoporosis and other complications. This form of diabetes attacks the pancreas, an organ which houses cell clusters known as islets which themselves contain beta cells, the researchers explained.

In most people, those beta cells make insulin, a substance which controls blood sugar levels, but in those with type 1 diabetes, they no longer do so because they have been attacked by the bodys immune system, they noted. When the immune system attacks those beta cells, the capillaries that help transport blood to and from the islets are also damaged, and it is this discovery that has inspired the Missouri researchers to work on a potential new cure.

Previously, Dr. Zaghouani and his colleagues developed Ig-GAD2, a new type of medicine used to help treat type 1 diabetes. They discovered that treatment with this drug helps prevent the immune system from attacking the beta cells. However, too few of the beta cells survived the attack to reverse the disease. Based on their new findings, he and his associates used Ig-GAD2 and then injected adult stem cells from bone marrow into the pancreas, hoping that those stem cells would ultimately evolve into replacement beta cells.

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Using Stem Cells Could Help Cure Type 1 Diabetes

The world's first human trials of synthetic blood could take place in Scotland, it has been reported.

Researchers from the Scottish Centre for Regenerative Medicine (SCRM) in Edinburgh have been granted a licence to make blood from stem cells which could be tested on humans, The Scotsman has reported.

The licence from the UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency will allow scientists at SCRM to attempt to manufacture blood on an industrial scale which will help to tackle shortages and stop the transfer of infections from blood donors, according to the paper.

Trials on humans, if approved, would be the first stage in establishing more large-scale clinical trials and could result in regular use of synthetic blood.

Researchers will use stem cells from adult donors - known as induced pluripotent stem cells - as part of this project instead of the more controversial embryotic ones.

Project leader Marc Turner said: "In the first part of the project we used human embryonic stem cell lines and one of the problems with using those lines is you can't choose what the blood group is going to be.

"Over the last few years there has been a lot of work on induced pluripotent stem cells and with those an adult can donate a small piece of skin or a blood sample and the technology allows for stem-cell lines to be derived from that sample.

"This makes our life a lot easier in some ways because that means we can identify a person with the specific blood type we want and get them to donate a sample from which we could manufacture the cell lines."

With the licence scientists will also be able to work on stem cell products used to help patients with Parkinson's disease, diabetes, cancer or those who have suffered a stroke.

Prof Turner hopes that the preparations to begin human testing will be completed in the next two to three years, the paper reported.

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Stem cells blood trial licensed

Christian Jüngst 3D live cell imaging of the adipogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells

By: Andor Technology

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Christian Jüngst 3D live cell imaging of the adipogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells - Video