[New research] Diabetes can be reversed?

This article is original by Translational Medicine Network.
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Author: Yun Introduction: Recently, researchers discovered that using a tiny device, insulin secreting cells can be implanted into diabetic mice, and these cells secrete insulin based on blood sugar.
This reverses diabetes without the need for drugs to suppress the immune system.

In our country, almost 1 out of every 10 adults suffers from diabetes.

Diabetes not only increases cardiovascular disease, microvascular disease, but also increases the risk of tumors, dementia, depression and other diseases.

All along, in everyone's mind, diabetes is irreversible.

Because once you have diabetes, you have to take medicine or insulin for life.
Diabetes can only be controlled and cannot be reversed.

So, is diabetes reversible? Or is it whimsical? Is it possible to reverse diabetes? On June 2, a study led by diabetes experts and biomedical engineers from Washington University School of Medicine and Cornell University in St.
Louis was published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, entitled "A nanofibrous encapsulation device for safe delivery of insulin-producing cells to treat type 1 diabetes".

Research has proved that using a tiny device, researchers can implant insulin-secreting cells into diabetic mice.

After implantation, these cells secrete insulin based on blood sugar levels, thereby reversing diabetes without the need for drugs to suppress the immune system.

“We can take a person’s skin or fat cells, make them into stem cells, and then grow these stem cells into insulin-secreting cells,” said Dr.
Jeffrey R.
Millman, associate professor of medicine at the University of Washington.
“The problem is that in type 1 diabetes patients The immune system attacks the insulin-secreting cells and destroys them.

In order to use these cells as a treatment, we need some devices to contain the cells that can secrete insulin in response to blood sugar, while also protecting these cells from immune responses.
Impact.

"In previous research, Millman, who is also an associate professor of biomedical engineering, developed a method to make induced pluripotent stem cells and then grow these stem cells into insulin-secreting beta cells.

Millman had previously used these beta cells to reverse diabetes in mice, but it is unclear how insulin-secreting cells can be safely implanted in diabetic patients.

 Schematic diagram of the structure and function of the NICE device.
"This device is only about the width of a few strands of hair.
It is microporous-the opening is too small for other cells to squeeze in-so insulin-secreting cells will not be destroyed by immune cells, because immune cells "Bigger than the opening," Millman said, "In this case, one of the challenges is to protect the cells inside the implant from starvation.
They still need nutrients and oxygen in the blood to survive.

With this device, we It seems that an area has been created where cells can feel just right inside the device and keep healthy and release insulin according to blood sugar levels.

"Millman's laboratory collaborated with researchers in the laboratory of Dr.
Minglin Ma, associate professor of biomedical engineering at Cornell University .

Dr.
Ma has been committed to the development of biomaterials to help safely implant beta cells into animals, and ultimately into patients with type 1 diabetes.

Several implants have been tried in recent years with varying degrees of success.

In this study, another co-senior researcher and his colleagues developed the Nanofiber Integrated Cell Encapsulation (NICE) device.

They filled the implants with insulin-secreting beta cells made from stem cells, and then implanted these devices into the abdomen of diabetic mice.

The researchers bend and twist the NICE device bioreactor "The combination of the structural, mechanical and chemical properties of the device we use prevents other cells in the mouse body from completely isolating the implant and not strangling it," Dr.
Ma said.
" The implants floated freely in the animal's body.
About six months later, when we took them out, the insulin secreting cells in the implants were still functioning.
The
important thing is that it is a very sturdy and safe device.

" The cells in the implant continued to secrete insulin and control the mice's blood sugar for up to 200 days.

Although the mice did not receive any treatment to suppress the immune system, these cells continued to function.

"We don't want to use drugs to suppress the patient's immune system because it makes them vulnerable to infection," Millman said.
"The equipment we use in these experiments protects the implanted cells from the mouse immune system.
We believe Similar devices can play the same role in patients with insulin-dependent diabetes.

"Millman and Ma are unwilling to predict how long this strategy may take before it is used clinically, but they plan to continue working toward this goal.

Reference materials: https://stm.
sciencemag.
org/content/13/596/eabb4601 Note: This article aims to introduce the progress of medical research and cannot be used as a reference for treatment options.

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