Stem cells could spell end for diabetes jabs

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Stem cells could spell end for diabetes jabs

Hopes have been raised of a new treatment to free thousands of diabetes sufferers from the burden of daily insulin injections.
一种新的治疗方法使成千上万的糖尿病患者从每天注射胰岛素的负担中解放出来的可能性提高了。

Scientists revealed findings of a study which shows that 15 young patients with type one diabetes overcame their dependence on insulin after being treated with their own stem cells.
科学家们在一个研究中的发现显示：15位年轻的I型糖尿病患者经过他们自己的干细胞治疗后，克服了对胰岛素的依赖。

The researchers say it could herald the start of a revolution in treating type one diabetes, which affects 300,000 patients in Britain.
英国有30万I型糖尿病患者，研究者们说这预示着治疗这种疾病的革命的开始。

Type one diabetics have to regularly inject themselves with the hormone insulin to control their blood sugar levels.
I型糖尿病患者必须有规律的注射激素---胰岛素来控制他们自己的血糖水平。

The new research has emerged a month after it was revealed that the number of British children under the age of five who had developed type one diabetes had risen fivefold in the past 20 years.
一项研究显示英国5岁以下的儿童表现出I型糖尿病的数目在过去20年中上升了5倍。这项研究发表一个月后，新的研究形成了。

A team of US and Brazilian scientists gave the patients powerful drugs to suppress their immune systems followed by injections of stem cells drawn from their own blood.
一组美国和英国的科学家在患者注射来自他们自身血液中的干细胞后，给患者强力的药物来抑制他们的免疫系统。

After treatment, 14 of the 15 were able to put away their injection pens after losing their insulin dependence.
在治疗之后，这15人中的14人可以在失去胰岛素依赖后扔掉他们的注射器了。

And so far, one patient has been free of insulin dependency for 35 months.
到目前为止，一位患者摆脱对胰岛素的依赖已经长达35个月。

Study leader Dr Julio Voltarelli from the University of Sao Paolo said he had rushed out his findings because of the positive results.
研究的负责人，来自Sao Paolo大学的Julio Voltarelli博士说由于积极的结果他提前公布了结果

He said: \"Very encouraging results were obtained in a small number of patients with early-onset disease.
他说：“许多令人鼓舞的结果都是从一小部分患有早期发作的疾病的病人那里得到的。”

\"Ninety-three per cent of patients achieved different periods of insulin dependence and treatment-related toxicity was low, with no mortality.\"
“93%的病人达到不同的胰岛素依赖时期，治疗相关的的毒性很低，死亡率为零。”

Type one diabetes is caused by insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas being destroyed by the patient's own immune system.
I型糖尿病是由于产生胰岛素的胰腺β-细胞被病人自身的免疫系统破坏所致。

Stem cells are immature cells that can develop to become a range of different adult cells.
干细胞是能发育并形成一定范围内多种成熟细胞的一类未完全发育的细胞。

In the latest trial, patients' immune systems were suppressed using powerful drugs - to eliminate the white blood cells that were attacking the pancreas.
在最后的试验中，患者使用强力的药物来抑制免疫系统从而削除攻击胰腺的白细胞。

The patient was then injected with a chemical which loosened stem cells from their bone marrow. These were filtered out, collected and later injected back into the patient's bloodstream.
接着患者被注射一种化学药品用来松开他们骨髓中的干细胞。这些干细胞被渗出，收集后，又被注射回患者的血流中。

Some of the 14 patients responded more quickly than others, according to the study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
据发表在期刊《American Medical Association》上的研究表明，其中的14位患者比其它患者更快的有了反应。

Researchers believe the stem cells developed into new white blood cells which did not attack the pancreatic beta cells.
研究者相信由这些干细胞发育而来的白细胞不会攻击胰β-细胞。

But they admit there are other possible interpretations - the stem cells could have developed into new beta cells in the pancreas. Or something might have happened to stop the existing beta cells being destroyed.
但是他们也认为会有其他可能的解释，比如干细胞可能会发育成新的胰β-细胞；或者发生了什么不知道的事情阻止现有的β-细胞继续被破坏。

The study only included a small number of patients between 14 and 31, and did not monitor their progress for very long.
这项研究只包括了一小部分14岁到31岁的患者，并且并没有对他们的进展进行长期的监控。

Because of the nature of the study, it is not known if further stem cell injections would be required at a later date.
由于这项研究的特性，所以还不能得知在今后的日子里是否需要更多的干细胞注射。

And unlike most medical trials there was no comparison with patients left untreated or only given drugs to suppress their immune system.
和其他所有的医学实验不同，这项研究没有未接受治疗或仅用药物抑制免疫系统的患者的对照。

Malcolm Alison, professor of stem cell biology at the Queen Mary School of Medicine and Dentistry in London, said: \"In principle this is a cure because these people developed long-term control of their glucose levels.
伦敦的Malcolm Alison，玛丽女王学院医学和牙科的干细胞生物学教授，说：“原则上说这些病人痊愈了因为他们的血糖水平得到了长期的控制。

\"But these patients haven't been followed up long enough, so we cannot yet be sure.\"
但是这些病人没有得到足够长时间的观察，所以我们仍然不能确定。”

Dr Ian Frame, research manager at Diabetes UK, said: \"This is interesting new research that demonstrates that there may have been a substantial improvement in beta cell fundtion. However we would wish to avoid false hope based on the very preliminary nature of these results.
“糖尿病英国”的研究负责人Ian Frame博士说：“这项新的有意义的研究显示出对β-细胞的fundtion的一个坚实的进步。然而我们希望消除错误的期望基于目前这些结果初步的特点。

\"This study had a very small number of participants and importantly did not include a randomised control group for comparison of results.
这项研究只有少数的参与者并且重要的是并没有包括一个随机控制组用来和结果做对照。

\"Also, as the researchers say, those who took part have not been sufficiently followed up to find out whether or not the improvements have continued.
同样的，正如研究者们说的那样，对那些接受治疗的人并没有进行充分的跟进，所以没有发现那些改善是否一直持续。

\"All these issues need to be addressed through more research before there are any conclusive findings in this area.\"
所有这些材料都必须通过更多的研究来验证，直到在这个领域有决定性的发现。

There have been several pointers towards this latest discovery.
这里有一些报道针对这项最近的发现。

Studies have alreday shown that bone marrow transplants given to cancer patients also seemed to reverse certain auto-immune disease such as type one diabetes. Bone marrow is full of stem cells.
一些研究已经证明提供给癌症患者的骨髓移植似乎会逆转某种自身免疫疾病例如I型糖尿病。骨髓中含有丰富的干细胞。

Later it was found that treating patients with stem cells from their own blood could benefit individuals with a range of auto-immune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and Chron's disease.
近来的研究表明某些患有自身免疫疾病的侵害的患者，例如风湿性关节炎和Chron氏病，能够通过自身血液来源干细胞治疗中获益。