Maternal Stem Cells May Cure Child's Diabetes

Filed in archive Research on January 24, 2007

Research in diabetes continues to become more and more frequent and provocative, admirably rushing to keep up with the rate of diagnoses.

The newest find is quite fascinating: that a mother's own stem cells may be able to cure her child's diabetes.

From Live Science :

Cells passed from a mother to child during pregnancy can grow into functioning pancreatic cells that produce insulin in the child, U.S. scientists report.

The scientists also found that children and young adults with type 1 diabetes had higher levels of maternal DNA in their blood than siblings or unrelated people without diabetes. This suggests an attempt to repair damaged tissue.

The findings suggest that it may be possible to harvest a mother's stem cells in order to treat her diabetic child.

I'm definitely looking forward to hearing more about this development.