Stem Cell Therapy as a Potential Cure for Diabetes Essay

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According to a study conducted by Aguayo-Mazzucato and Bonner-Weir (2010), there is a cure neither for diabetes type 1 nor diabetes type 2. However, research by Chhabra and Brayman (2013) established that there is a way to treat diabetes type 2. The rationale is that positive results were observed from experiments where stem cell therapy was used to prevent and treat different types of diseases. Diabetes type 1 which is known as insulin-dependent diabetes (IDDM) occurs when the immune system identifies and destroys the pancreatic cells which produce insulin. Diabetes type 2 which is non-insulin dependent diabetes (NIDDM) prevalent in adults mostly, is caused by insufficient production of insulin, which makes the body cells nonresponsive to the insulin.

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The results of a specialized study by Chhabra and Brayman (2013) on the treatment of diabetes type 2, which makes 90% to 95% of the cases known globally, has shown that it is viable to treat this disease using stem cells therapy. Research conducted by Brignier and Gewirtz (2010) compared traditional treatment methods which are the use of diets, exercises, and drug administration to a combination of oral medication and stem cell therapy. It also showed that the disadvantage of oral medication is that it subjects the patient to low blood levels, weight gain, and gastrointestinal problems, which can be overcome by combining stem cell therapy with the traditional methods (Brignier & Gewirtz, 2010). The first stem cell treatment tested on mice with diabetes type 2 as a potential alternative to the traditional treatment techniques used a combination of traditional methods with stem cell therapy based on insulin replacement. Here, Hocking and Gibran (2010) noted that the specialized use of leptin replacement reversed the resistance to insulin in mice with moderate fat deficiency.

According to Hocking and Gibran (2010), the experiment was done first inducing markers into the mouse with diabetes type 2 that was fed on a high-fat diet to reduce the body’s response to insulin. Then, the second phase consisted of “encapsulating pancreatic progenitor cells from the human embryonic stem cells before they were transplanted into the mice” (Hocking & Gibran (2010, p.2). Here, the first group of animals was treated using stem cells and drugs, while the second group of animals was treated using the drugs only. The first group of mice that were treated with a combination of stem cell therapy and drugs showed a stronger positive response to the combined treatment than the second group.

A similar study that used metformin, sitagliptin, and rosiglitazone drugs combined with stem cell therapy where “mice were subjected to a combined treatment plan of antidiabetic medication with stem cell transplantation showed that the mice underwent weight loss and glucose metabolism successfully” (Jarajapu & Grant, 2010, p.4).

According to the findings by Holscher (2010), it is possible to replicate the results on human beings to increase the metabolism of the body cells by targeting derived mesenchymal precursor cells (MPCs) from adult allogeneic bone-marrow.

In conclusion, the answer to the question if stem cell therapy promises the cure for diabetes is affirmative because the research analyzed has yielded positive results which show that the combined treatment of diabetes type 2 using stem cells and oral administration of drugs is possible.

References

Aguayo-Mazzucato, C., & Bonner-Weir, S. (2010). Stem cell therapy for type 1 diabetes mellitus. Nature Reviews Endocrinology, 6(3), 139-148.

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Brignier, A. C., & Gewirtz, A. M. (2010). Embryonic and adult stem cell therapy. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 125(2), S336-S344.

Chhabra, P., & Brayman, K. L. (2013). Stem cell therapy to cure type 1 diabetes: from hype to hope. Stem Cells Transl Med, 2(5), 328-336.

Hocking, A. M., & Gibran, N. S. (2010). Mesenchymal stem cells: paracrine signaling and differentiation during cutaneous wound repair. Experimental cell research, 316(14), 2213-2219.

Holscher, C. (2010). Incretin analogues that have been developed to treat type 2 diabetes hold promise as a novel treatment strategy for Alzheimer’s disease. Recent patents on CNS drug discovery, 5(2), 109-117.

Jarajapu, Y. P., & Grant, M. B. (2010). The promise of cell-based therapies for diabetic complications challenges and solutions. Circulation research, 106(5), 854-869.

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IvyPanda. (2020, August 24). Stem Cell Therapy as a Potential Cure for Diabetes. https://ivypanda.com/essays/stem-cell-therapy-as-a-potential-cure-for-diabetes/

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IvyPanda. 2020. "Stem Cell Therapy as a Potential Cure for Diabetes." August 24, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/stem-cell-therapy-as-a-potential-cure-for-diabetes/.

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