But the embryonic stem cell crowd shouldn't get all excited. Once again, the treatment does not show a use for ESCs. The cure comes from stem cells of the patient's own blood.
In a breakthrough trial, 15 young patients with newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes were given drugs to suppress their immune systems followed by transfusions of stem cells drawn from their own blood.
The results show that insulin-dependent diabetics can be freed from reliance on needles by an injection of their own stem cells. The therapy could signal a revolution in the treatment of the condition, which affects more than 300,000 Britons...
All but two of the volunteers in the trial, details of which are published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), do not need daily insulin injections up to three years after stopping their treatment regimes.
The findings were released to reporters yesterday as the future of US stem-cell research was being debated in Washington.
Stem cells are immature, unprogrammed cells that have the
Still waiting for the ESCR crowd to find one use for ESCs.
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