Studies Open for Enrollment

Autologous Dendritic Cell Therapy for Type 1 Diabetes Suppression: A Safety Study

Thank you for your interest in our diabetes research. Below is general information about the safety study that will soon be underway. We are also listing links to articles that describe our effort.

Please read – very important! A safety study is done to make sure that no harm will be caused by the treatment. In this safety study, there will be no benefit to the subjects. Subjects will be monitored for side effects.

Research Investigators
Massimo Trucco, MD; Nick Giannoukakis, PhD; Theresa Whiteside, PhD; Silva Arslanian, MD

Candidates

• Type 1 diabetes for at least 5 years
• Age 18 to 25
• In good health with no diabetes complications
• For women, not pregnant and not breast feeding
• Location (for convenience, participants should reside in Pittsburgh or surrounding vicinity)

Requirements

• 15 subjects; informed and consented to the study.
• Blood work to see if the subject qualifies.
• Dendritic cells (a type of white cell) removed from the blood. In 7 of the subjects, dendritic cells will be treated. In the other subjects, the dendritic cells will not be treated.
• For the following 6 weeks, subjects’ own dendritic cells will be injected subcutaneously back into them.
• All subjects will be monitored for side effects for a 12-month period.

Status: Open for Enrollment

Future Studies
If this study proves that the treatment is safe, more studies will be done to see if treated dendritic cells will protect the insulin producing cells.

How to Participate
Please leave your name, address, and phone number at 412-692-6167. Once the patient enrollment starts, we will contact you further to determine whether or not you meet the requirements.

Additional Resources
Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC News Release: Groundbreaking Human Clinical Trial for Type 1 Diabetes to Start This Spring in Pittsburgh

NBC Today Show: Juvenile diabetes cure?

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Children's, UPMC study way to reverse juvenile diabetes

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: Diabetes patients gain hope from vaccine tests

Pharmaceutical Business Review: Diabetes reversed in mice, FDA approves human trial

Science Daily: Researchers reverse juvenile diabetes in animal model; clinical trial FDA approved

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