A report from a medical panel of academic and community-based endocrinologists and transplant surgeons acknowledged that a recent study supports the use of stem cells as a future cure for type I diabetes.
The panel was responding to recently published research where pancreatic insulin-producing islet cells were discovered in mice. The panelists were unanimous in their enthusiasm that this research, conducted jointly at the Universities of Alberta and Toronto, adds more hope to the goal of getting human stem cells to produce insulin, and thus finding a cure for diabetes.
While most panelists felt that clinical use of pancreatic stem cells as a cure for diabetes was 15-20 years away, they also believed that application of stem cell therapies would likely include spinal cord injuries, Parkinson's disease and dementia. In addition to the current federally imposed restrictions on stem cell research, they also saw cost as a major inhibiting factor, including sterilization, preservation of cells, consistency of product and delivery of cells.