London, Dec. 13: A cure for diabetes may have been found — at least in men.
Researchers have used slivers of testicular tissue to make millions of healthy replacements for the faulty cells that trigger the condition.
In experiments on mice, grafts of the lab-grown pancreatic cells produced enough insulin to control blood sugar levels in diabetic mice.
Although the work is at an early stage, US researchers believe it could lead to a cure for men and boys with type-1 diabetes in perhaps just five years, reports the Daily Mail.
The researchers, from Georgetown University Medical Centre in Washington, started with tiny samples of tissue from human testicles.
Using a cocktail of vitamins and growth factors, they transformed them first into stem, or master cells, and then into the beta islet cells that produce insulin in the pancreas. The process took around five weeks, said a Georgetown University release. The researcher, Mr Ian Gallicano, of Georgetown University believes the testicular cells, or spermatogonial stem cells, could succeed whether other potential diabetes cures have failed.
Using a man’s own cells as the source of the treatment would sidestep any chance of the tissue being rejected by the body.