Umbilical cord blood stem cell domestication immune cells can maintain blood glucose levels in patients with type 1 diabetes for a long time

Type 1 diabetes mellitus

Type 1 diabetes is characterized by loss of insulin in the pancreas.

Without insulin, blood sugar can't supply energy-hungry organs and tissues in the body.

As a result, sugar accumulates in the blood, and over time, sugar causes many serious complications, such as kidney disease, heart disease and stroke.

The absence of beta cells is attacked by an overreacting immune system that is mistaken for a foreign invader.

Most diabetes treatment is to turn stem cells into beta cells to replace lost cells.

Type I diabetes is known to be associated with immunity, and stem cells, especially adult stem cells, may have a role in inducing immune tolerance and immunosuppression.

So can the relationship between stem cells and immune cells be applied to type I diabetes?

The recent Stem Cell Translational Medicine published a different approach, using umbilical cord blood Stem cells to tame the immune system and retain the still intact beta cells.

A schematic diagram of the process of stem cell domestication

A team of scientists from the United States, China and Spain have devised a technique they call stem cell domestication (SCE) treatment.

The technique draws blood from diabetics and then separates the lymphocytes from the immune system, allowing it to move slowly and fully in contact with cord blood stem cells.

Because stem cells attach to the surface of the device, only lymphocytes are recovered and returned to the patient's bloodstream.

The idea is to weaken immune cell activity by forcing interactions with the umbilical cord blood stem cells, and these domesticated patients are no longer able to react to beta cells.

In a series of clinical trials between 2010 and 2014 in China and Spain, the researchers showed that single SCE therapy can restore beta cell function in patients, and blood sugar is also controlled.

Although treatment seems safe and effective a year later, its working principles are unclear.

Therefore, in the current study, the team aims to better understand the function of umbilical cord blood stem cells and to conduct follow-up for 4 years.

Shortly after SCE treatment, the researchers observed elevated platelet levels in the blood.

They examined the cells more closely to see if they contained any factors that would suppress the immune response.

Indeed, the study found that platelets carry a protein called autoimmunoregulatory protein (AIRE), which plays a key role in inhibiting the response to autoimmune responses.

Mitochondrial DNA

Platelets do not contain nuclear or nuclear DNA, but they have mitochondria (the cell's energy producers), which contain their own DNA and genetic code.

Analysis of mitochondrial DNA shows that it codes for proteins that are associated with the regeneration and growth of beta cells in the pancreas.

An incredible discovery in the process of experiment, platelets release mitochondria, the mitochondria could be pancreatic beta cells to absorb, the protein involved in the beta cells may play a role.

"Platelets seem to have a direct effect on beta cells," said Serena Gordon, a reporter for HealthDay, who interviewed Julia Greenstein, vice President of JDRF. "the study is interesting but needs to be repeated."

For the four years of follow-up study, nine patients with type 1 diabetes from China were examined.

Two patients who were diagnosed with diabetes less than one year later still had normal levels of insulin in their blood and still did not need to be injected with insulin.

Among the other seven patients, single treatment gradually lost its efficacy.

According to Dr. Yong Zhao, a research leader at the university of hackensack university in New Jersey, a single treatment is not enough for these patients.

Because this is the first trial, the patient needs only one treatment.

Now we know that this is very safe, so the patient can be treated 2-3 times.

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Application of stem cells of immune cells in the implementation of "domestication" stem cells therapy, or long-term control and management of blood glucose level in diabetic patients, the method for the treatment of type 1 diabetes opened the new way of thinking.

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