Maternal Stem Cell Hope for Childhood Diabetes

A paper published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by investigators at the University of Bristol and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle provided evidence that maternal stem cells transferred to the child during pregnancy took up residence in the pancreas to become insulin producing cells. More importantly these cells did not seem to be adversely affected by the child’s immune system. These findings, if confirmed and extended, have important implications in the treatment of type 1 diabetes mellitus which usually affects children. Specifically, they raise the possibility that stem cells obtained from the mother may be harvested and used to treat a child with type 1 diabetes.