Type 1 diabetes discovery by UK scientists

Scientists in the UK may have uncovered new evidence which it is hoped could eventually help diagnose and prevent type 1 diabetes, reports the country’s public broadcaster the BBC.

Andy Sewell, a professor at Cardiff University School of Medicine, working with diabetes experts at King's College London, witnessed human T-cells - which protect against disease - inadvertently destroying insulin-producing cells. The team says it is the first time the process has been witnessed.

The scientists isolated a T-cell from a patient with type 1 diabetes to view a process which results in the killing of insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. This knowledge will be used in the future to help us predict who might get the disease and also to develop new approaches to prevent it, they said.