DOHA: Qatar University Biomedical Research Centre organised a seminar on the use of stem cells to treat diabetes. The event on ‘Pluripotent stem cells as tools for disease modelling and cell therapy in diabetes’ was delivered by Dr Essam M Abdelalim, scientist, Qatar Biomedical Research Institute, and Assistant Professor at Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU).
He said with diabetes as the most prevailing disease with progressive incidence worldwide and no permanent treatment available yet, cell therapy might prove to be the best approach to treat type 1 and severe cases of type 2 diabetes.
According to him, transplantation of pancreatic islets is used to restore the functional cells in diabetic patients, but the shortage of human donors and the occurrence of immune rejection lead to search for other sources of pancreatic cells.
He said recent studies indicate that stem cells are likely to be accepted as a therapeutic tool for diabetes. “Pluripotent stem cells (PSCs), including embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and induced pluripotent cells (iPSCs) are considered promising approaches to study diabetes. ESCs/iPSCs have a high capability to differentiate into insulin-producing cells, which are closer in nature to in-vivo cells than those differentiated from other types of stem cells.
“iPSCs can be generated directly from diabetic patients, providing cells genetically identical to the patient to be used for in-vitro disease modelling and eventually cell-based therapies. Several iPSC lines have been produced from patients with different forms of diabetes and most of these are able to differentiate into insulin-producing cells,” he said.
He said iPSCs could provide personalised treatment to the particular characteristics of each patient, but before PSCs could be considered a tool for regenerative medicine to treat diabetes, additional in vitro and in vivo studies are needed, as the patient safety is the most important issue to be considered. He also discussed advances, challenges and future perspectives of using iPSCs as a promising tool for disease modelling and cell therapy in diabetes. The Peninsula
