Our body cells require energy to carry out the millions of chemical reactions needed to keep us alive. Over evolutionary, time our cells evolved a mechanism for converting certain organic molecules into ATP (adenosine triphosphate) which cells can use very efficiently in chemical reactions that require energy. Our cells have evolved to work most efficiently at creating ATP when the input organic molecule is glucose. Therefore, we need to provide our cells with a constant supply of glucose from our food.The way it works is we eat food that can be digested down into glucose, then the glucose crosses the wall of the small intestines and enters the blood. Cells that need glucose can pick up that glucose when insulin, a rather large protein molecule, ‘unlocks’ the ‘door’ of the cells to allow glucose to enter. The glucose then interacts with mitochondria, organelles within the cell, to break the glucose down in a step-by-step process to capture the energy from the glucose in the molecules of ATP.

Type I diabetes is the situation where the pancreatic cells do not produce the insulin needed to provide glucose to cells. The glucose we eat circulates in the blood causing damage to blood vessels and nerves at the same time cells are starved for a source of energy. A person with diabetes will take insulin around the time they expect their food to be digested so glucose can enter the cells and the cells of the body can function.

Several Canadian medical researchers are looking at a novel way of treating diabetes that involves harvesting islet cells (insulin producing cells) from a deceased person (an organ donor) and injecting them into a person with diabetes. The research protocol has been advanced and improved since 2000 to the point where the most current protocol has cured people of their diabetic state. The research is being conducted at the University of Alberta at the Clinical Islet Transplant Program (www.islet.ca).

This is important research. Current data suggests that 2.5 million Canadians live with diabetes and those people will experience a degeneration in their health over the course of their lives. Diabetes is in my family and is affecting people I care about. One of those people is currently undergoing the islet transplant. Right now, as I write. I am very excited to find out the results of the transplant.