Bone Marrow Stem Cell as a Potential Treatment for Diabetes

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a group of metabolic diseases in which a person has high blood glucose levels resulting from defects in insulin secretion and insulin action. The chronic hyperglycemia damages the eyes, kidneys, nerves, heart, and blood vessels. Curative therapies mainly include diet, insul...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ming Li, Susumu Ikehara
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Hindawi Limited 2013-01-01
Series:Journal of Diabetes Research
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/329596
Description
Summary:Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a group of metabolic diseases in which a person has high blood glucose levels resulting from defects in insulin secretion and insulin action. The chronic hyperglycemia damages the eyes, kidneys, nerves, heart, and blood vessels. Curative therapies mainly include diet, insulin, and oral hypoglycemic agents. However, these therapies fail to maintain blood glucose levels in the normal range all the time. Although pancreas or islet-cell transplantation achieves better glucose control, a major obstacle is the shortage of donor organs. Recently, research has focused on stem cells which can be classified into embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and tissue stem cells (TSCs) to generate functional β cells. TSCs include the bone-marrow-, liver-, and pancreas-derived stem cells. In this review, we focus on treatment using bone marrow stem cells for type 1 and 2 DM.
ISSN:2314-6745
2314-6753