Diabetes is a condition resulting from an abnormality in insulin levels, insulin effectiveness or the cell’s inability to respond to insulin. Poor functioning of insulin results in reduced uptake of glucose by cells and hence an increased level of glucose in the blood.
Diabetes
Types of Diabetes:
Type 2-diabetes is caused by an unhealthy lifestyle and can be controlled by insulin injections or diabetic medications. Whereas, Type 1-diabetes is a congenital autoimmune condition resulting from dysfunctional pancreatic cells as the immune system destroys them. Thus, only insulin injections can treat Type 1-diabetes. Insulin injections should be done daily and it also requires constant monitoring of blood glucose levels.
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An alternative more permanent method to treat Type 1-diabetes is pancreatic islet transplantation. However, due to the highly fatal risks of an immune rejection reaction, it is not the first choice in the management of Type 1-diabetes. Patients require long-term use of immunosuppressive medications, which increases their susceptibility to a host of other infectious pathogens. This may soon change as scientists have figured out a way to significantly reduce the immune rejection risks in pancreatic islet transplantation.
According to scientists, covering the pancreatic cells by microcapsules may prevent the provocation of an immune response as the body’s immune system fails to recognize the transplanted cells as foreign bodies.
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