€1 million for A'dam study into intenstinal bacteria helping with diabetes

The Diabetes Research Netherlands Foundation and the Diabetes Fund are pushing 1 million euros into an Amsterdam UMC study into whether intestinal bacteria can help  people with type 1 diabetes. Researcher Max Neiuwdorp is investigating whether intestinal bacteria from healthy people can boost the pancreas function of diabetes patients, NOS reports.

Around 120 thousand people in the Netherlands have type 1 diabetes and have to self-administer insulin to maintain their sugar metabolism.

Nieuwdorp's study is focused on the fecal bacteria in the intestines that play a role in sugar metabolism and the immune system. For the study, this bacteria will be introduced to type 1 diabetes patients through a feces transplantation into their small intestine.

The researchers will examine how the attack on insulin producing cells in diabetes patients is related to the bacteria in the intestines and whether treatment with good bacteria can make the immune system less aggressive towards the body. 

The research consists of three studies and will take around five years.

Feces transplants are not new in the Netherlands. They have been used for years to treat patients with Crohn's disease, among other things, according to NOS. The patient is given a watery solution of a healthy person's stool through a tube in their nose.