THURSDAY, March 23 (HealthDay News) -- Three years ago, scientists announced a new treatment had cured diabetes -- in mice.

But researchers reporting in the March 24 issue of Science say three separate attempts to replicate that pioneering study have proven only partially successful.

The results, while not stellar, still leave the cup of hope at least half-full for people with diabetes, experts say.

In fact, Dr. Denise L. Faustman, the scientist who performed the first study, contends the cup is still "100 percent full, because the new studies confirm that it is possible to stop the process by which the immune system mistakenly destroys insulin-producing islet cells." Islet cells reside in the pancreas, but are destroyed in the type 1 form of diabetes.

source: www.medicinenet.com...

Plans for a trial to see if type 1 diabetes can be reversed in humans are well underway at Massachusetts General Hospital, Faustman said, despite the partial failure of the three subsequent trials in mice.

But Kleiman is a survivor, thanks most recently to a new breakthrough in diabetes treatment: a transplant of islet cells to restore his ability to produce insulin.

One year ago, Kleiman received a transfusion of donated islet cells. The procedure is relatively simple. Doctors infuse cells through a catheter into the liver, where they settle and start producing insulin.

"I would consider this one of the most promising advances in diabetes research," says Dr. Richard Insel from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. "In the last four years, we're seeing an 80 percent success rate of islet cell transplantation."

A successful transplant means no more insulin shots for most patients.

source: www.cbsnews.com...