Chinese doctors said they succeeded in treating diabetes in a 59-year-old man, using stem cell therapy for the first time in the world.
The study was conducted by researchers led by Dr. Yin Hao, and was published in the journal Cell Discovery, and several websites such as the Daily Mail and others wrote about it.
The patient, a 59-year-old man, underwent a cell transplant in 2021 and has not taken medications since 2022.
The experimental treatment involved creating an artificial version of the cells in the pancreas that produce insulin and keep blood sugar levels under control.
The man had suffered from type 2 diabetes for 25 years, and had lost almost all function of these cells, known as the islets of Langerhans.
The patient was at high risk of developing fatal complications, requiring several insulin injections every day to prevent him from falling into a diabetic coma.
Pancreas
The pancreas is an organ that, among other functions, produces insulin. Insulin is a natural hormone that our body uses to control the amount of sugar in the bloodstream. Diabetics have difficulty regulating blood sugar, due to a defect in the pancreas.
Up to this point, no one has ever been “cured” of diabetes, but doctors have figured out how to turn it into a latent state.
But this requires patients to maintain a relatively strict diet and exercise program to stop blood sugar problems from returning.
However, the case in China suggests that it is possible to restore the body’s ability to regulate blood sugar naturally without changing the patient’s lifestyle.
The treatment used stem cells, which are a type of empty cell that can be converted into many different types of cells that the body needs to function.
Under the right conditions, stem cells can turn into brain, muscle, kidney or even pancreas tissue.
This treatment used a new chemical mixture to convert the patient’s stem cells into pancreatic cells.
These cells produce insulin, which tells your body when to pull sugar from the food we eat for energy.
Blood sugar
In diabetics, the pancreas does not produce enough insulin to regulate blood sugar. Having too much or too little sugar in the blood can lead to nerve damage, kidney damage, heart disease, and more.
A revolutionary treatment for type 1 diabetes could see cells that act like pancreas transplanted into patients’ arms.
The researchers suggest that by implanting new lab-grown cells that can produce insulin, the patient can start producing their own insulin again.
“I believe this study represents an important advance in the field of cell therapy for diabetes,” said Timothy Kiefer, a professor of cellular and physiological sciences at the University of British Columbia in Canada, who was not involved in the research.
Although this result is encouraging, there is still a way to go before it can be approved for patients.
Next, scientists will have to test their treatment on more patients.
Type 2 diabetes
Professor Kiefer said that after testing it on a larger number of people, they would need to find a way to scale up their process.
Currently, converting empty “stem cells” into functional pancreatic cells is very complex, time-consuming and expensive. Scientists will have to make the process easier if it is to work for most people.
There is a possibility that this treatment will only work in treating type 2 diabetes, which is the most common form of the disease.
Patients with type 1 diabetes, whose pancreas has been attacked by the immune system, may have more difficulty using this treatment because their immune system may reject the new transplanted cells, the study authors wrote.
Professor Kiefer said that in the future, this treatment may “free patients from the burden of chronic medications, improve health and quality of life, and reduce healthcare expenses.”