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A groundbreaking study has reported the first successful use of reprogrammed stem cells to reverse type 1 diabetes in a 25-year-old woman from Tianjin, China. Less than three months after receiving a transplant of stem cells derived from her own body, she began producing her own insulin, allowing her to enjoy a diet that includes sugar. This achievement has been hailed as a stunning result by James Shapiro, a transplant surgeon and researcher at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, who noted that the patient previously required significant amounts of insulin before the procedure.
The study, published in Cell, is part of a series of pioneering trials exploring the potential of stem cells to treat diabetes, a disease affecting nearly half a billion people globally. Traditional islet transplants, which involve donor tissue, are limited by the availability of donors and the need for lifelong immune-suppressing medications. In contrast, stem cells can be cultivated indefinitely in the lab and offer a potentially limitless source of pancreatic tissue, reducing the risk of rejection by using cells derived from the patient’s own body.
In this trial, researchers led by Deng Hongkui from Peking University reprogrammed cells from the patient into pluripotent stem cells, capable of developing into any cell type. They then generated 3D clusters of islets, which were injected into her abdominal muscles, a new site for such transplants. Remarkably, within two and a half months, the woman no longer needed insulin supplements and maintained stable blood glucose levels for over a year. However, researchers emphasize the need for further studies to replicate these results in a larger group of patients and assess the long-term viability of the treatment, particularly regarding the autoimmune response associated with type 1 diabetes.
