New treatment for diabetes on the anvil?

Here's some good news for diabetics! Scientists claim that a new treatment to cure Type 1 diabetes is on the anvil, after they discovered a way to "kick-start" the pancreas, thus reducing the need for daily insulin jabs.

In its research, a team at the University of Illinois used stem cells found in the umbilical cord to "re-educate" a diabetic's immune "T-cells", which can counteract mutant or damaged cells.

This restarted the pancreas, reducing the need for insulin by up to 38 per cent in just 12 weeks, according to the findings published in the 'BMC Medicine' journal.

Type 1 diabetes is triggered when the immune system attacks the insulin-producing beta cells which move glucose into the body's cells.

Dr Yong Zhao, who led the team, was quoted by the 'Daily Express' as saying, "This is a big step towards a cure."

Diabetes UK has described the ideas behind the study as "innovative".

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