New Vaccine Approach Prevents New-Onset Diabetes

May 29, 2008 · 122 views · Filed Under Aging

Microscopic spheres carrying molecules synthesized in a laboratory have been shown to prevent and even reverse new-onset cases of type 1 diabetes in animal models, diabetes researchers at the John G. Rangos Sr. Research Center at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC have found.

In a research study at Children’s Hospital, the scientists injected the microspheres under the skin near the pancreas of mice with autoimmune diabetes. The microspheres were then captured by white blood cells known as dendritic cells and dissolved. As they dissolved, the molecules they were carrying reprogrammed the dendritic cells, which then migrated to the pancreas. There, they turned off the immune system attack on insulin-producing beta cells. Within weeks, the diabetic mice were producing insulin again and showed no signs of diabetes.

Results of the microsphere study are published in the June issue of Diabetes, the journal of the American Diabetes Association.

Full Story: New Vaccine Approach Prevents New-Onset Diabetes
Source: Children’s Hospital Of Pittsburgh

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