1 Oct 2024 • A 25-year-old woman with type 1 diabetes has reportedly started producing her own insulin in less than 3 months after receiving a transplant of reprogrammed stem cells (pluripotent stem-cell-derived islets).

In a similar study, a few months ago a group in Shanghai successfully transplanted insulin-producing islets into the liver of a 59-year-old man with type 2 diabetes. This was also an allogeneic transplant, as islets were also derived from reprogrammed stem cells taken from the man’s own body. He has since stopped taking insulin. The researchers said this was the world’s first treatment of type 2 diabetes using stem cell-derived islet transplantation.

More About The Procedure

• In June 2023, in an operation that lasted less than half an hour, they injected the equivalent of roughly 1.5 million islets into the woman’s abdominal muscles — a new site for islet transplants. Most islet transplants are injected into the liver, where the cells cannot be observed. But by placing them in the abdomen, the researchers could monitor the cells using magnetic resonance imaging, and potentially remove them if needed.
• Two-and-a-half months later, the woman was producing enough insulin to live without needing top-ups, and she has sustained that level of production for more than a year.

Researchers say the results for the other two participants are “also very positive”, and they will reach the one-year mark in November, after which they hope to expand the trial to another 10 or 20 individuals.

Source: Nature | Read full story