A study by Vimm - Unipd offers a new method to stimulate stem cells in people with diabetes
07.09.2021
Routinely used for treating high levels of triglycerides, fenofibrate is a pharmaceutical drug capable of stimulating the circulation of stem cell levels in patients with diabetic retinopathy. Such results come from a study conducted by researchers at the University of Padua Department of Medicine and the Veneto Institute of Molecular Medicine (VIMM) and coordinated by Gian Paolo Fadini who is an associate professor of Endocrinology and principal investigator of VIMM’s Experimental Diabetology Unit.
Diabetologia, the official journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes EASD, published the study beginning with observations taken from two major international studies according to first author Benedetta Bonora. The previous studies indicate how fenofibrate, a drug commonly used also in diabetics to lower the concentration of triglycerides in the blood, was able to protect against the progression of retinopathy, a chronic complication of diabetes that can lead to blindness and for which therapeutic weapons a provision are limited.
Prof. Fadini underlines, “We noticed that diabetic patients with low levels of circulating stem cells had an increased risk of progressing more advanced stages of retinopathy. Therefore, we sought to understand how we could stimulate circulating stem cells, as this plays a key role in protecting tissues and organs from chronic damage, and whose protective mechanism is compromised by diabetes. Our laboratory started from this assumption, towards identifying therapeutic approaches to restore organ protection through stem cells in patients with diabetes".
According to Angelo Avogaro, Full Professor of Endocrinology - Metabolism and Chief of the Metabolic Unit at the University of Padua Hospital, “Understanding the mechanism of treatment is a fundamental step to allow its use on a large scale. This new study provides an important contribution to our knowledge of how it is possible to prevent the progression of one of the most fearful chronic complications of diabetes for which, even today, there are a limited number of therapeutic opportunities”.
The Diabetologia article was published under the title "Fenofibrate increases circulating haematopoietic stem cells in people with diabetic retinopathy: a randomised, placebo-
controlled trial" by authors Benedetta Maria Bonora, Mattia Albiero, Mario Luca Morieri, Roberta Cappellari, Francesco Ivan Amendolagine, Marta Mazzucato, Alberto Zambon, Elisabetta Iori, Angelo Avogaro, and Gian Paolo Fadini.
