Meetings set for diabetic treatment update

The latest research findings on the treatment of childhood diabetes will be discussed by renowned researcher and pediatric endocrinologist Dr. Alberto Hayek from 5 to 8 tonight at the Maui Electric Co. auditorium at 201 W. Kamehameha Ave. on Maui and from 6 to 8 p.m. tomorrow in the Hawaiian Suites at the Blaisdell Exhibition Hall.

Hayek, director of the Islet Research Laboratory of the Whittier Institute in La Jolla, Calif., will discuss advances in cell transplantation therapies, including islet transplantation, for Type I or juvenile diabetes, a chronic auto-immune disorder in which the body destroys its own insulin-producing cells.

Islet transplantation, in which pancreatic islet cells are injected into a patient’s liver, aims to stimulate the production of insulin, thus rebuilding the body’s ability to control blood sugars without the need for daily insulin shots.

Type I diabetes affects about 10 percent of the nation’s 16 million diabetics.

Type 2 diabetes, the onset of which usually occurs in adulthood, results from the inadequate production of insulin or an inability by the body to use it properly.

It may also require daily shots of insulin.

Both forms of the disease can have disastrous effects on the body, causing blindness, kidney damage or failure, and nerve damage leading to amputation and heart disease.

Hawai‘i has a high incidence of diabetes, disproportionately affecting both the Native Hawaiian and Filipino populations, and leading to high levels of heart disease and kidney failure.

Research has centered on finding cells to transplant, including islet cells produced by the pancreas. But there are other, new potential sources of insulin-producing cells, including gene therapy approaches, which Hayek will discuss.

Hayek has an extensive background in pediatric endocrinology, and is also a professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Diego. He has headed the Lucy Thorne Whittier Children’s Center and been chairman of the Islet Research Laboratory of the Whittier Institute for Diabetics and Endocrinology since 1984.

[back to top]