Type 1 diabetes reversed for first time through cell treatment in China

Chinese scientists have successfully reversed type 1 diabetes in a groundbreaking new treatment, marking the first case of its kind.

The patient, a 25-year-old woman from Tianjin, has not needed insulin injections for more than a year after receiving a stem cell transplant using her own reprogrammed cells.

According to Express News, the woman had been living with the chronic condition for over a decade before undergoing the surgery, which took just half an hour.

After only two and a half months, her body began producing enough insulin to regulate her blood sugar naturally.

The procedure was carried out by researchers from Tianjin First Central Hospital and Peking University, and the findings were published in the peer-reviewed journal Cell last week.

The team used chemically induced pluripotent stem cells (CiPSCs) derived from the woman’s own body fat cells.

These stem cells were transformed into insulin-producing islet cells and transplanted into her abdominal muscles.

Stem cell therapy has been hailed as a revolutionary new approach to treating diabetes, which affects nearly half a billion people worldwide.

In type 1 diabetes, the immune system destroys the insulin-producing islet cells in the pancreas, and while islet cell transplants from deceased donors have shown promise, donor shortages and the need for lifelong immunosuppressants limit the procedure’s availability.

In this case, because the cells came from the patient’s own body, there was no risk of immune rejection.

The minimally invasive procedure involved injecting around 1.5 million islet cells into the woman’s abdominal muscles, allowing for close monitoring and retrieval of the cells if necessary.

Traditional islet transplants are usually placed in the liver, where they cannot be observed easily.

Following the transplant, the woman’s insulin levels stabilised, and her blood sugar remained within a healthy range for more than 98% of the day.

She reported being able to eat foods she had previously avoided, saying, "I can eat sugar now," and adding that she enjoys hotpot again.

James Shapiro, a transplant surgeon at the University of Alberta in Canada, called the results "stunning," noting that the patient had previously required significant amounts of insulin.

"They’ve completely reversed diabetes in this patient," he said.

This breakthrough follows a similar trial in April where a 59-year-old man with type 2 diabetes received a transplant of insulin-producing islets derived from his own stem cells in Shanghai.

Both cases offer hope for a new treatment approach to diabetes, though experts stress that more trials are needed to confirm the long-term effectiveness of the procedure.

Although the patient in this latest case was already on immunosuppressants due to previous liver transplants.

Chinese researchers are hopeful that future trials will allow them to determine whether these reprogrammed stem cells could also avoid the body’s immune response without the need for immune-suppressing drugs.

The Chinese research team plans to expand the trial to include 10 to 20 more individuals in the coming months.

While these initial results are promising, experts caution that the treatment must be tested on a larger scale and observed for several years before it can be considered a cure.

As researchers around the world look for more scalable solutions, other trials using donor stem cells are also showing potential.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals in Boston recently reported positive results from a trial in which donor stem cells were used to create islet cells that were then transplanted into patients with type 1 diabetes.

While much more research is needed, the success of these early trials marks an exciting step toward finding a long-term solution for millions living with diabetes.