T_Dia
02-12-2008, 04:10 PM
A pioneering transplant treatment for people suffering the worst effects of type 1 diabetes was approved for use on NHS patients yesterday, encouraging doctors who are developing the technique to talk of an eventual cure. Health ministers said they would fund six centres to inject pancreas cells into diabetes patients' livers, stimulating the production of insulin.
About 250,000 people across Britain have type 1 diabetes, a condition often diagnosed in childhood and unconnected to the individual's weight or lifestyle. It develops when the body cannot produce the natural hormone insulin. Most manage the condition with daily insulin injections, exercise and a careful diet. But hundreds of people risk blackouts and hospital admission because they cannot detect any early warning signals that blood sugar levels are getting dangerously low.
Research funded by the charity Diabetes UK has identified a transplant procedure, which can take just 45 minutes, to inject cells from the islets of Langerhans tissue, a hormone-producing cluster in the pancreas, which can be extracted from a dead donor. The islets include beta cells which make insulin. Once injected, they allow the recipient to live a healthy life with fewer or no injections.
Islet transplantation is regarded by the government as a suitable alternative to whole-organ pancreas transplants because it is less invasive and can be considered for patients with cardiac disease who would be unfit for open surgery.
Diabetes UK said charities had funded 12 islet transplants over six years. Funding approved by the government yesterday will increase the rate to 20 in the first year, rising to about 80 in subsequent years. Eventually, about 2,500 people at risk of hypoglycaemic attack may benefit from the technique.
The full article can be seen here (http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/feb/12/health.nhs).
About 250,000 people across Britain have type 1 diabetes, a condition often diagnosed in childhood and unconnected to the individual's weight or lifestyle. It develops when the body cannot produce the natural hormone insulin. Most manage the condition with daily insulin injections, exercise and a careful diet. But hundreds of people risk blackouts and hospital admission because they cannot detect any early warning signals that blood sugar levels are getting dangerously low.
Research funded by the charity Diabetes UK has identified a transplant procedure, which can take just 45 minutes, to inject cells from the islets of Langerhans tissue, a hormone-producing cluster in the pancreas, which can be extracted from a dead donor. The islets include beta cells which make insulin. Once injected, they allow the recipient to live a healthy life with fewer or no injections.
Islet transplantation is regarded by the government as a suitable alternative to whole-organ pancreas transplants because it is less invasive and can be considered for patients with cardiac disease who would be unfit for open surgery.
Diabetes UK said charities had funded 12 islet transplants over six years. Funding approved by the government yesterday will increase the rate to 20 in the first year, rising to about 80 in subsequent years. Eventually, about 2,500 people at risk of hypoglycaemic attack may benefit from the technique.
The full article can be seen here (http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/feb/12/health.nhs).