A handful of people with type 1 diabetes have been able to survive without insulin shots for more than two-and-a-half years, on average, after having their own blood stem cells removed and reimplanted through intravenous injection, U.S. and Brazilian researchers reported Tuesday.Overall, the technique has been tried in 23 people, mostly boys and young men, who were treated within six weeks of a new diagnosis of type 1 diabetes. People who have type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disease that destroys the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas, typically need insulin shots to survive. (People with type 1 make up only about 10 percent of all diabetics; most people have type 2, which can be controlled with diet, exercise, oral drugs, or insulin shots.)
Further reading @ CNN… http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/04/15/stem.cells.diabetes/index.html
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