A new study in the UK, which has reached the clinical trials phase, could have unearthed a treatment for the diabetic condition. Doctors at the heart of the pioneering research indicate that within 10 years a cure for diabetes may be a reality. The treatment is based around cell replacement therapy.
Experts at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford are transplanting insulin-producing clusters of pancreatic islet cells into the liver of diabetic patients. The process, when successful, allows the patient to begin to make their own insulin again. In a normal, healthy body the hormone insulin regulates blood sugar levels and prevents them from soaring or falling. The doctors hope that this will eventually enable diabetics to live like non-diabetics, with their critical bodily processes reinstated.
An insulin regime is perceived as the only way to treat type 1 diabetes and serious cases of type 2 diabetes. The doctors hope that their groundbreaking processes will bring the era of daily insulin injections to an end. Furthermore, with the disease reversed, the long-term complications associated with diabetes, including stroke, amputation, blindness and kidney failure may also be brought to an end amongst diabetics.
The trial is funded by the DWRF (The Diabetes Research and Wellness Foundation), and takes the medical community one step closer to the ultimate achievement, a cure for diabetes.
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