Stem cells are the body's master cells that provide the basic building block from which all other cells in the body develop.
Scientists at the University of Florida have isolated stem cells from the insulin producing tissue in the pancreas. They have grown these isolated stem cells over a number of years and when these stem cells were inserted back into diabetic mice the cells developed into the type of cells that are responsible for the production of insulin in the pancreas.
The mice were subsequently able to produce their own insulin and survived without insulin injections.
The researchers see clinical potential for this by removing stem cells from patients in the early stages of diabetes and then using them to replace the insulin producing cells destroyed as the disease progresses. Much research still needs to be done before the technique can be used by the 200,000 patients in the UK who need to inject insulin on a daily basis.
