Diabetes

Diabetes researcher Dr. Camillo Ricordi prepares a cell mixture of insulin-producing islet cells for transplantation. Photo courtesy of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

In the 1950s, about 1 in 5 people died within 20 years after being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, formerly known as juvenile diabetes. Almost all of them developed diabetic retinopathy, which accounted for about 12% of new cases of blindness between the ages of 45 and 74. People with diabetes relied on inaccurate urine tests to track their blood sugar. They used crude animal-derived insulins to control it.

In 1983, NIH began the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial, which enrolled 1,441 people with type 1 diabetes. This landmark study was stopped early because the results so clearly showed that careful control of blood sugar reduced eye, kidney, and nerve complications by 50% to 75%. In a follow-up study 10 years later, researchers learned that rates of heart disease and stroke had declined by half.

Today, people with type 1 diabetes are living longer and healthier lives. New technologies help them keep tight control of their blood sugar using continuous glucose monitors and insulin pumps that deliver rapid-acting, bioengineered human insulin.

We also know a lot more about type 2 diabetes. We know that family history, obesity, and physical inactivity are risk factors for this condition, formerly known as adult-onset diabetes. NIH-funded research has shown that type 2 diabetes can be delayed or prevented. Basic lifestyle interventions—modest weight loss and regular exercise—slash type 2 diabetes risk by 58% over 3 years in people with pre-diabetes. Despite this good news, type 2 diabetes still accounts for 90% of diabetes cases nationwide and has been increasing at an alarming rate due to the rise in obesity in the United States.

Imagine the Future…

An artificial pancreas—perhaps an implantable device—automatically senses a person’s blood sugar and adjusts insulin dosage precisely.
Preventing obesity preempts type 2 diabetes and its complications.
Stem cell research leads to the ability to replace failing insulin-producing cells.