New Research Uncovers Potential Cure for Type 1 Diabetes: Islet Regeneration May Now Be Possible, According to Iacocca Foundation

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 13, 2003--Before this decade is over, doctors may be able to cure type 1 diabetes by encouraging the body to regenerate its own insulin-producing cells. The possibility of a cure, announced during National Diabetes Awareness Month, is based on study results recently published in the November 14 issue of Science magazine.

The announcement was made by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and the Iacocca Foundation, a leading nonprofit group dedicated to diabetes research, and an ardent supporter of the study.

“It may someday be possible to apply her technique in reversing rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and lupus.”

"What we have been able to do changes the long-standing belief that adult islet tissue regeneration would not be robust or have a long-lasting impact on blood sugar control," says Denise Faustman, MD, PhD, principal investigator of the study. "We have successfully demonstrated that we can re-grow cells inside the body in a naturally occurring model."

Type 1 diabetes is a disease in which the body's immune system attacks its insulin-producing cells. These cells are necessary for converting the body's blood sugar, or glucose, to energy. With time, the accumulation of glucose in the blood can lead to heart disease, kidney failure, blindness and loss of limbs.

In addition to the almost two million Americans with type 1 diabetes, approximately 30,000 individuals - mostly children - are diagnosed with the disease each year. The annual cost associated with the disease exceeds $20.4 billion in the U.S. alone, according to the American Diabetes Association.

For cell regeneration to occur, the faulty immune cells that attack the body must first be destroyed. In a previous study, Dr. Faustman demonstrated the effectiveness of using a naturally occurring protein (TNH-alpha antagonists) to kill the immune cells in type 1 diabetic mice. She and her team then injected healthy donor spleen cells to train new immune cells not to attack the insulin-producing islets. Researchers expecting to transplant donor islet cells discovered that healthy islets spontaneously reappeared, suggesting that tissue regeneration was taking place. The new study published in Science confirmed the re-growth process.

"Dr. Faustman's research has significant implications not only to the future of diabetes treatment, but also to other autoimmune diseases," says Kathryn Iacocca Hentz, president of the Iacocca Foundation. "It may someday be possible to apply her technique in reversing rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and lupus."

The Iacocca Foundation has been a leader in the battle against diabetes for the past 20 years and has granted more than $20 million to innovative and promising research. The Foundation was established by Lee Iacocca in honor of his late wife, Mary, who died from complications of type 1 diabetes.

Dr. Faustman's research has largely been supported by grants from the Iacocca Foundation. "We saw the potential for a cure and since 1995 granted her team a total of $5.2 million to carry out the research," notes Hentz. "Plans are underway to provide additional funding that will take this research outside the lab and into clinical trials in humans."

Dr. Faustman is director of the immunobiology laboratory at MGH, a teaching hospital affiliated with Harvard Medical School. MGH conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the U.S., with an annual research budget of more than $350 million. In 1994, MGH formed an affiliation with Brigham and Women's Hospital to form Partners HealthCare system, an integrated health care delivery system.

For information on other innovative research the Iacocca Foundation has supported, consumers can call the toll-free number at: 1-866-995-0046.