Stem cell breakthrough offers hope for diabetics

STEM cells taken from the blood of a few diabetes patients have ‘re-set’ their immune systems, helping 14 out of 15 live for months and even years without insulin, latest research has found.

While they are not claiming to have cured the patients, they said their experiment shows it may be possible to at least interrupt the mistaken immune response that destroys insulin-producing cells in type-1 diabetes.

“It’ll generate controversy and interest and excitement,” Dr Richard Burt of Northwestern University in Chicago, who helped lead the study, said.