Therapies using stem cell transplants are advancing promising treatments for such conditions as Alzheimer’s Disease, neurological diseases and spinal cord injury, and heart disease. Now, scientists think that stem cell transplants may ultimately benefit those who suffer from diabetes or cancer.

For patients with type 1 diabetes, increased levels of uric acid in the blood may be an early sign of diabetic kidney disease—appearing before any significant change in urine albumin level, the standard screening test, reports a study in the May 2008 issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

Research carried out by scientists at the Peninsula Medical School in the South West of England has found that resveratrol, a compound present naturally in grape skin, can protect against the cellular damage to blood vessels caused by high production of glucose in diabetes, according to a paper published in the science journal “Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism” this week.

Scientists at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have initiated a phase 1 clinical trial to reverse type 1 diabetes. The trial is exploring whether the promising results from the laboratory of Denise Faustman, MD, PhD, can be applied in human diabetes.

The incidence of type 2 diabetes is rising, especially in urbanized parts of the world where sedentary lifestyles and obesity abound. In addition to weight and inactivity, race puts some people at increased risk for developing type 2 diabetes.

Data from the ADVANCE Study, involving 11,140 high-risk patients with type 2 diabetes, provides no evidence of an increased risk of death among those patients receiving aggressive treatment to lower blood glucose.

Researchers who examined blood test records in a survey of over 3.6 million patient records held by UK GP surgeries have found thousands of cases of probable undiagnosed diabetes. This could help identify tens of thousands of people with undiagnosed diabetes in UK.

The results of a major government study on diabetes and heart disease shocked American medical researches, who were going to show that a long-trusted form of treatment for lowering blood sugar would yield even greater results. But the study has raised more questions.

Due to the success of the first three years of the American College of Physicians (ACP) and the American College of Physicians Foundation (ACPF) Diabetes Initiative, the program has received additional funding from Novo Nordisk Inc. to continue the initiative for an additional two years through December 2009.

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health has stopped one treatment within a large, ongoing North American clinical trial of diabetes and cardiovascular disease 18 months early due to safety concerns after review of available data, although the study will continue.

The National Institutes of Health announced that they has stopped aggressive diabetes treatment in a major trial after a safety review showed that pushing blood sugar to record low levels sharply increased patients' risk of death.

One way diabetes is bad for your blood vessels is by creating too much competition for an amino acid that helps blood vessels relax, researchers say.