Let's look at some headlines. It's a good-news-bad news month. First, a symposium held at Keble College, Oxford, UK examined the use of stem cells to cure diabetes. Dr. Stoffel of Rockefeller University of NY told the group how his group is trying to use embryotic stem cells to grow insulin-producing beta cells. This would lead to an unlimited supply of beta cells in the test tube. Research is currently in mice cells in which stem cells are stimulated with low glucose to produce insulin. At the same meetings S. Efrat, Ph.D. from Sackler School of Medicine in Tel Aviv reported on an encapsulating beta cell device that would provide a solution to autoimmunity problems. Dr. Susan Bonner-Weir, Ph.D. at Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston spoke of her methods for beta cell replacement therapy by cultivating human islets in vitro from pancreatic tissue that is usually discarded. She used adult duct tissue and differentiated it to form islets. She is now expanding her study to study these cells in mice.
Second, the bad news, has to do with the rise in diabetes in the US during the 1990s. There was a one-third rise in the incidence of type 2 diabetes in this time frame, an unheard of event. Dr. Frank Vinicor, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated “If that would happen in a disease like tuberculosis, syphilis or AIDS, I think there would be a public outcry, and understandably.“ These numbers show there are grave consequences to increase of obesity in the United States.
In an article in the Lancet, Professor Jan Bruining reports on an analysis of 2,400 children which shows that those from affluent homes are more likely to develop type 1 diabetes, as an abundance of food leads to increased growth and weight which is associated with higher insulin secretion. The researchers believe that this is the reason that children are developing type 1 diabetes in affluent countries like Great Britain where the incidence has doubled in the last 5 years with about 1,200 children under 5 years of age being diagnosed each year. Children from poorer countries have less food and are less likely to develop diabetes. The Dutch research investigated the growth of children with type 1 diabetes in the first years of life. It looked at change in their BMI in children from 91 children ages 4-15 as well as their healthy siblings. It confirmed that before they became diabetic, children underwent a higher than average increase in BMI in the first year of life. They also grew quickly over the next 2 years.
