World milestone: A woman’s diabetes can be reversed with a stem cell transplant from her body

Chinese scientists managed to reverse a woman’s diabetes using transplantation of reprogrammed stem cells from one’s own body. He is the first person with type 1 diabetes to receive this treatment.. After 75 days the patient, 25 years old, He was already making his own insulin and didn’t need to inject it.. A year later, the young woman claims that she can eat any food, even sweet ones. The results are “promising,” say the authors of the study, published in “Cage” magazine which describes this achievement. However, they and other endocrinology experts emphasize that more clinical trials are needed to generalize this therapeutic pathway.

IN type 2 diabetesMost often, the body does not produce enough insulin or its ability to use the hormone is reduced. On the other hand, in type 1 diabetesLess common (1 in 20 people with diabetes) and usually occurring before age 30, the immune system attacks the beta cells of the pancreatic islets, causing insulin deficiency.

Researchers from Tianjin (northern China) managed generate pancreatic islets from patient stem cells. In June 2023, in an operation that lasted less than half an hour, the equivalent of approximately 1.5 million islets was injected into the woman’s abdominal muscles. The pancreatic islets, also known as the islets of Langerhans, are groups of cells in the pancreas and contain insulin-producing beta cells.

Transplantation achieved. restore a woman’s glycemic level without exogenous insulin. Blood glucose levels remained within normal limits for more than 98% of the day. The treatment was found to be safe and effective after one year of follow-up.

“Now I can eat sugar”– a woman living in Tianjin said in a telephone conversation with the magazine. “Nature”who dedicates an article to this world milestone. “I like to eat everything, especially stew,” added the patient, who wished to remain anonymous.

“Extraordinary progress in the fight against diabetes!”– exclaimed the Spanish researcher on social networks. Gorka OriveProfessor of Pharmacy at the University of the Basque Country.

“This is remarkable,” he told Nature. Daisuke Yabediabetes researcher in Kyoto University (Japan). “If this can be applied to other patients, that would be wonderful.”

“The results are intriguing, but dshould be repeated on more people“, he noted Jay Skylerendocrinologist from the University of Miami (USA), who is also quoted by Nature. This type 1 diabetes researcher wants to wait and see if a woman’s cells continue to produce insulin for five years before deeming her “cured” of diabetes.

Because it’s autoimmune diseasethere is still a risk that the body may attack the islets. Deng Hongkui, a cell biologist at Peking University and one of the study’s authors, explained to Nature that they did not test this in the woman because of the immunosuppressants she received from a previous liver transplant, but are trying to develop cells that can avoid this autoimmune response. Dan adds that The results of two other participants in the clinical trial were “also very positive.”and that they will be one year old in November, after which they hope to expand the trial to another 10 or 20 people.

The study, published in Cell, follows another study conducted by an independent research group in Shanghai, China, which reported a successful transplant in April Insulin-producing islets in the liver of a 59-year-old man with type 2 diabetes. The islets were also derived from reprogrammed stem cells taken from the man’s own body, who has since stopped taking insulin.

Several research groups around the world are working on developing stem cells to treat diabetes. This is the case Harvard Stem Cell Institute (USA), which is trying to create beta cells from embryonic beta cells that detect glucose and produce insulin. The pharmaceutical company Vertex, also based in the United States, is conducting clinical trials on a dozen patients.

Stem cells can be used to produce any tissue in the body and can be grown indefinitely in the laboratory, meaning they represent a potentially unlimited source of pancreatic tissue. By using tissues made from a person’s own cells that are non-rejection-resistant, researchers hope to avoid the need to prescribe immunosuppressive drugs.

Reference Study: “Transplantation of chemically induced pluripotent stem cell-derived islets under the anterior rectus sheath in a patient with type 1 diabetes”.

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