The Research Ave of Islet Regeneration

For many years, scientists around the world have been endeavoring to find a cure for diabetes through different research avenues – pancreatic transplantation, islet transplantation, engineered beta cells, xenotransplantation, and the virtual pancreas.

Dr. Aaron I. Vinik and his research team at the Strelitz Diabetes Research Institute pioneered the avenue of islet regeneration with the belief that it is a viable approach to treating Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes because there is defective pancreatic beta cell function in both forms of diabetes.

In Type 1 diabetes, a viral assault and the development of antibodies cause an insult on the pancreas that adversely affects genetically susceptible beta cells. Subsequently, there is a rapid destruction of the pancreas’ ability to make insulin and a critical reduction of beta cell mass until only 2% of beta cells remain. Diabetes then develops.

In Type 2 diabetes, resistance to insulin may be the initial stage, but over time insulin production diminishes. Eventually, the pancreas tires and ceases insulin production.

Type 2 diabetes does not develop if the pancreas can make enough insulin to compensate for insulin resistance.

Prospective studies in England revealed that from the day a person is diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, the condition has likely existed for 10 – 12 years, and 50% of beta cell function has already been lost. That loss continues at a steady rate of 3.5% - 5% each year until all beta cell function ceases within ten years of diagnosis.

The Strelitz Diabetes Institutes research team believes that islet regeneration therapy will potentially treat both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes by creating insulin-producing islets. In Type 1 diabetes, it may be necessary to combine islet regeneration therapy with an autoimmune cocktail that will protect the newly formed islets from antibody destruction. In Type 2 diabetes, regenerative therapy may be combined with insulin sensitizers to allow the body to recognize and effectively use the new islets.

The Strelitz Diabetes Institutes’ research efforts are focus on understanding the mechanism of islet regeneration in the belief that it will allow scientists to address the contingencies that may be found in human trials that are being conducted by the pharmaceutical industry.