Woman’s diabetes Cured after world-first stem cell transplant in China

Key points:

• The 59-year-old patient of 25 years received a transplant of pancreatic cells derived from his own stem cells in 2021. He is now insulin independent.
• This marks the world’s first successful use of stem cell-derived islet transplantation to cure diabetes.
• The achievement, published on Cell Discovery on April 30, comes after over a decade of research at Shanghai Changzheng Hospital.

The details:

• Diabetes is a major health threat, affecting 422 million people worldwide. While there is still no known cure for diabetes, methods of management include insulin injections and other medications.
• The patient reportedly suffered a significant decline in pancreatic islet function, which regulates blood sugar, after undergoing a kidney transplant in 2017. Since then, he had been dependent on daily multiple insulin injections. 
• In July 2021, a team at the hospital led by researcher Yin Hao used the patient’s own blood cells to create stem cells, which were then converted into pancreatic islet cells.
• The transplant successfully eliminated the patient’s need for external insulin within 11 weeks. Oral medication was also gradually reduced and ultimately discontinued a year later.
• Follow-up exams showed restored pancreatic function and normal kidney function, suggesting that the patient has been cured.

What’s next:

• In 2023, the FDA approved a similar cell therapy treatment by a Chicago-based startup for type 1 diabetes.
• The Chinese researchers say more research is needed to confirm the long-term efficacy and broaden applicability of this treatment.

A year after the procedure, researchers say there are “no indications of abnormalities” and the patient’s diabetes has “functionally reverted.” Chinese scientists said they had cured a patient with type 1 diabetes by injecting her with stem cells taken from her own body. This was the first time this had ever been done anywhere in the world.

Some people with type 1 diabetes have an immune system that starts attacking their pancreas as early as childhood. This hurts the islet cells that make insulin. In the past ten years, new studies have shown that stem cells, which can grow and change into different types of cells, might be able to help find a cure.

A breakthrough method was created by scientists in which a type of stem cell can be used to replace body tissues. This cell can be fed and grown into any tissue.

After about two and a half months, doctors found that the patient was making enough insulin on her own. “The patient achieved sustained insulin independence beginning 75 days after the transplant,” the study’s authors wrote.

Over the course of a year, the procedure “restored glycemic control” in the patient, which meant that her type-1 diabetes was no longer a problem. There were also “no indications of transplant-related abnormalities.”