Eye the window to diabetes cure

AHMEDABAD: Eyes, our windows to the world, are now emerging as a window of hope for diabetics. A team of scientists, led by Dr Per-Olof Berggren, has successfully cured Type-I diabetes

in mice by tranplanting healthy islets of langerhans, that contain insulin-producing beta cells, from the pancreas into the eyes.

Dr Berggren is head of Cell Biology and Signal Tranduction at the Diabetes Research Institute, University of Miami, as well as professor and head of experimental endocrinology at Karolinksa Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.

The revolutionary technique, which allows scientists to study the pancreatic islet function through a microscope, cured Type-I diabetes in mice in just a month. These studies have been on for the last three years and Ahmedabad may well help take it to the next stage. "It's very difficult to study islets in the pancreas or in isolation in a test tube. Eyes have a normal blood flow and we can also look in through them," said Dr Berggren, who is in Ahmedabad to attend a symposium organised by Zydus Cadila group.

Studies have now progressed to transplants in one monkey in Miami and the results have been encouraging. Ahmedabad could soon play a critical role in this pathbreaking research as Dr Berggren is in talks with Zydus Research Centre for collaborative research. The huge monkey population in the city too could swing it our way. "We could be ready to test it on human patients blinded by diabetes in two years," Dr Berggren said, adding that this technique may help study Type-II diabetes as well.