Diabetes is a chronic disease characterized by an elevation of blood glucose.
In type 1 diabetes mellitus, the pancreas does not produce enough insulin because of pancreatic beta cells destruction due to an immune system attack. In type 2 diabetes mellitus, the organism does not use correctly the insulin produced by the pancreas. The key therapeutic issue in diabetes mellitus type 1 and 2 is glycemic control.
In 2011, the World Health Organization estimated the number of people suffering from diabetes to 356 million. It is expected to reach more than 500 million before 2030. The World Health Organization estimated that diabetes directly caused 1,5 million of deaths in 2012
Courtesy of Clinical Islet Transplantation (CIT) Consortium, sponsored by National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
