The prospect of using transplants derived from stem cells to reverse diabetes has come a step closer with the news that the technique seems to work in mice.
A team from Novocell in San Diego, California, told a stem cell conference in Evry, France, last week that this is the first hint therapies derived from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) might cure type 1 diabetes. The only existing treatments for people with this autoimmune disease are regular insulin, or islet-cell transplants from cadavers.
The Novocell team grew hESCs – the embryonic cells from which all the body’s tissues originate –…
