RT-Diabetes is curable?!
23:18 2005-03-10
A 61-year-old man with diabetes has been cured by islet cell transplant, British doctors have announced.
The man have suffered from Type 1 diabetes, the most extreme form, for 30 years.
The pancreatic cells were obtained from the pancreas of an organ donor and injected into the patient's liver. The operation was carried out at King's College Hospital, London.
The success could eventually bring an end to insulin dependence for all Type 1 diabetes sufferers, doctors believe, tells Xinhuanet.
The operation, the first completely successful transplant of so-called islet cells in Britain, builds on and amplifies pioneering research in Canada, and offers hope for patients with this potentially lethal disease around the world, they said.
Professor Stephanie Amiel, a consultant in diabetes at King-s College Hospital where the breakthrough treatment was carried out, said the achievement was ?hugely exciting¦. ?The implications for the future are enormous. Eventually this could mean the end of insulin dependence for all Type 1 [Type 2] diabetes sufferers,¦ Amiel said.
Diabetes is caused by a problem with insulin, a hormone that stimulates the body-s cells into absorbing the energy source glucose from the blood. Insulin is produced by one of two classes of islet cells, which exist in the pancreas, a hand-sized organ located behind the stomach. This extreme form of diabetes develops, when the immune system destroys these beta-class islet cells, leaving the patient with a lifelong dependency on insulin injections.
Insulin deficiency can lead to heart and blood disorders that are responsible for an estimated 50 to 80 percent of the deaths that occur among diabetics, informs Daily Times.
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