12:56 PM PDT on Saturday, May 20, 2006

By JEAN ENERSEN / KING 5 News

Kids with Type 1 diabetes face major health complications as they age and the disease continues to damage their bodies. Now some Seattle researchers are working to buy them crucial time.   

Each week Nick Branstetter and his mom fly in from Idaho to the Benaroya Research Institute in Seattle. Nick is helping doctors with a study of Type 1, or juvenile diabetes. He was diagnosed with the disease in January.  

“I have to wake up, check my blood sugar, eat breakfast..take insulin,” he said.  

He must take insulin because his own immune system is attacking the insulin-producing cells made by his pancreas. He may have already lost most of them. His body needs those cells to use food for energy.

"The purpose of our research is to try to say, ‘Can we save what's left? Can we keep the insulin producing cells there?’” said Dr. Carla Greenbaum of the Benaroya Research Institute.

KING

Nick is helping doctors with a study of Type 1, or juvenile diabetes.

Researchers are studying a combination of drugs usually used in transplant patients to prevent rejection of an organ. They think the drugs in low doses may also prevent the immune system from attacking remaining insulin cells.

The goal is to postpone and minimize damage from debilitating complications of diabetes. People with diabetes can get eye disease which can cause blindness. They can get kidney disease, which can cause the need for getting a kidney transplant sometime in life. And it can also cause early heart disease.

Nick will take two pills daily for at least two years. Periodically his blood will be monitored to check for remaining insulin cells. Neither Nick nor his doctor knows if he's getting the real thing or a placebo. Still, he's excited about being in the study

"It could help a bunch of people, and so it could just save other people's lives,” he said. 

His mom says the whole family is committed to the weekly trips for as long as they're needed.

 “If we can find something that will help the pancreas keep working longer, keep producing the insulin, that's amazing, that would be great,” said Christine Spidell.

The research is an international effort. Several drugs are being tested to see which may work best to preserve insulin cells.  

Local researchers say they'd like to hear from anyone diagnosed with Juvenile or Type 1 diabetes in the past three months. Children and adults to age 45 are eligible for the study.