Researchers produce beta cells in huge step for cure for type 1 diabetes

The hunt for a type 1 diabetes cure has recently taken a "tremendous step forward", according to scientists.

People with the disease have cells that control the blood sugar levels destroyed by their immune system.

A Harvard University team of researchers used stem cells to produce hundreds of millions of the cells in the laboratory.

Tests on mice had shown that the cells could treat the disease which was hailed as "potentially a major medical breakthrough" by experts.

Beta cells in the pancreas pump out insulin to lower levels of blood sugar.

The body's own immune system could, however turn against the beta cells, destroying them and leaving them unable to regulate their blood sugar levels, a potentially fatal condition.

It differs from the more common type 2 diabetes, which is caused largely due to poor lifestyle.

The Harvard team was led by professor Doug Melton who started the search for a cure when his son was diagnosed to be suffering from diabetes 23 years ago. He then had a daughter, who too developed the condition.

Melton is looking to replace the approximately  150 million missing beta cells, using stem cell technology.

He found the perfect cocktail of chemicals to transform embryonic stem cells into functioning beta cells.

Meanwhile, Melton said in a conference call with journalists, ''What we're reporting on is something that I think was obvious to many as a possible solution but just turned out to be difficult to achieve, and that is the creation of human beta cells that properly respond to sugar or glucose and secrete the right amount of insulin.'' 

Describing the work outlined in Cell, Jose Oberholzer - an associate professor of surgery, endocrinology and diabetes, and bioengineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago - told Rob Stein of National Public Radio, ''It's a huge landmark paper. I would say it's bigger than the discovery of insulin. The discovery of insulin was important and certainly saved millions of people, but it just allowed patients to survive but not really to have a normal life.

"The finding of Doug Melton would… offer them really something what I would call a functional cure. You know, they really wouldn't feel anymore being diabetic if they got a transplant with those kind of cells.''

It took Melton and about 50 other colleagues, who tested 70 different chemical compounds in 150 different combination to figure out exactly how to instruct a stem cell to become a beta cell.