The key to
restoring production of insulin in type I diabetic patients, previously known
as juvenile diabetes, may be in recovering the population of protective cells
known T regulatory cells in the lymph nodes at the “gates” of the pancreas, a
new preclinical study published online October 8 in Cellular & Molecular
Immunology by researchers in the Department of Bioscience Technologies at Thomas
Jefferson University suggests.
Tatiana D.
Zorina, M.D., Ph.D., an Assistant Professor in the Department of Bioscience
Technologies, Jefferson School of Health Professions, and colleagues addressed
a question of whether type I diabetic patients’ own beta cells, which produce
insulin, could recover/regenerate if protected from autoimmune cells. If
successful, such an approach would promote the patient’s own insulin production
without need for its supplementation by insulin injections or beta cell
transplantation from the cadaver organ donors.
journal
reference (abstract freee): nature>>