April 2009
Main source material
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090312130653.htm
Diabetes is one of the most prevalent diseases in modern society, yet like many of the big 'incurables', stem cell therapy in Thailand is giving hope to many sufferers. Scientists have recently combined diabetes stem cell therapy with a tried and true method for improving health and wellness - hyperbaric oxygen therapy - with great results. We examine the new technique.
Despite the prevalence of diabetes in our society, with hundreds of adults being diagnosed with Type II of the illness every day, few people actually understand the nature of the disease. Type II diabetes can be a form of self-inflicted injury on the pancreas, which is so overworked from excessive sugar intake that its tissue actually becomes damaged. This is where a person's own stem cell can come in - adult stem cell cures depend on the fact that stem cells are able to automatically travel to the site of injury in the body, multiply and work to heal the injury by becoming any sort of necessary cell. Scientists have recently uncovered that the effectiveness of stem cell therapy in Thailand for diabetes can be multiplied greatly by combining it with an old favorite - hyperbaric oxygen therapy. The HBOT was given both before and after the autologous adult stem cell therapy, and displayed significant benefits in glycemic control as well as reducing outside insulin dependence.
The study was published in a recent issue of 'Cell Transplantation', and conducted by Esteban Estrada, MD, in conjunction with Dr Cesar V Borlongen, of the University Of South Florida College Of Medicine. It looked at 25 patients with type 2 diabetes, and the idea for the study was based on the fact that hyperbaric oxygen is often used to treat inflammation, and in diabetes, there is an ongoing inflammation of the pancreas. Dr Estrada said that "hyperbaric oxygen therapy, used ... as an enhancement to wound healing, has been shown to increase stem cell mobilization and the release of endothelial progenitor cells". Dr Estrada also praised adult stem cell cures as a whole, saying that stem cell transplants were an area of medicine that showed special promise and growth.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy has been used for decades in the treatment of decompression sickness in divers, as well as carbon monoxide poisoning and to assist wound healing, as Dr Estrada mentioned. It involves administering oxygen at higher than usual atmospheric pressures. This improves the ability of the blood to carry oxygen, as oxygen transport by plasma, as well as hemoglobin, is acheiveable. It has also been used to assist healing in diabetes-related conditions, such as diabetic foot, diabetic retinopathy and diabetic nephropathy. However, the use to treat the condition itself, in conjunction with stem cell therapy for diabetes, is a first.
While further study is needed, of course, the authors say that the positive and progressive outcomes they achieved could not possibly have been the sole result of intensive follow up and diabetic management.
In a related study, researchers at the University of Alberta think they may be able to assist type 1 diabetes patients with one of their recent studies. They isolated pancreatic stem cells in mice, and were able to produce both insulin-producing cells and neurons from the stem cells that they found.
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