"Larger, more rigorous studies are needed to determine if stem cell transplants could become standard treatment for people with the disease, once called juvenile diabetes, which is much less common than Type 2, associated with "

". While promising for future research, the study did not involve a comparison group with which to make sure the treatment was indeed better than standard diabetes care. "

"The research was done in Brazil because doctors in the United States were not interested in the approach, said one of the authors, Dr. Richard K Burt of "

"The patients ranged in age from 14 to 31 and were newly found to have Type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disease in which the body attacks insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. Insulin is needed to regulate blood sugar levels, which when too high can lead to "

"The purpose of the stem cell transplant was to stop the body?s attack on the pancreas. A study published last year described a different kind of experimental transplant, using pancreas cells from donated cadavers, that enabled a few diabetics to give up insulin shots. But that requires lifelong use of anti-rejection medicine, which the patients in Brazil do not need since the stem cells were their own."

"In the newly reported study, 15 diabetics were treated at a bone marrow center at the University of São Paulo. In each case, the disease was diagnosed before the patients? insulin-producing cells had been
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