Concise review: Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation to treat insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus is a lifelong disease which causes negative effects on patient life. As a result of the disease, patients suffer from high blood sugar and the inability to obtain energy effectively from food. Diabetes mellitus can lead to life-threatening complications such as blindness, cardiovascular disease and diabetic coma. Diabetes can arise from defective insulin hormone production (usually related to type 1 diabetes mellitus or insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM)) and/or defective insulin hormone function (related to type 2 diabetes mellitus). IDDM usually occurs in young people and can cause many serious health problems. There are several treatments which been investigated and applied in patients. Among them, stem cell therapy (especially hematopoietic stem cell therapy) has great potential to treat diabetes due to its many distinct advantages. The review will focus on diabetes mellitus, hematopoietic stem cells, and the novel hematopoietic stem cell therapy in diabetes mellitus type 1 treatment.