Chinese Physicians Achieve Landmark in Diabetes Remediation Using Stem Cells

Shanghai Physicians Achieve Landmark in Diabetes Remediation Using Stem Cells

In an unprecedented medical feat, Shanghai doctors have successfully eradicated a patient’s diabetes through the transplantation of pancreatic cells derived from stem cells.

The patient, a 59-year-old male afflicted with Type 2 diabetes for a quarter-century, has been insulin-independent for 33 months, as per the announcement from Shanghai Changzheng Hospital on Tuesday.

This pioneering achievement, the result of over a decade of meticulous efforts by a dedicated medical team, has been documented in a paper published on April 30 on the website of the journal Cell Discovery.

This is the inaugural globally reported case of diabetes with critically impaired pancreatic islet functionality being remedied through autologous, regenerative islet transplantation from stem cell origins, the hospital confirmed. Pancreatic islet cells are primarily responsible for insulin production.

Diabetes is a formidable threat to human health. Prolonged poor glycemic control can precipitate severe complications such as blindness, renal failure, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular maladies, and limb amputation. Furthermore, hypoglycemic coma and ketoacidosis, arising from rapid fat metabolism, pose life-threatening risks.

China has the world’s largest diabetic demographic, with 140 million patients, of whom about 40 million are dependent on lifelong insulin injections, according to the International Diabetes Federation.

Experts assert that severe diabetes cases, characterized by poor blood glucose regulation, can only be effectively managed through minimally invasive transplantation, which involves injecting islet tissue procured from a donor’s pancreas.

Nonetheless, due to factors like a critical scarcity of donors and the intricate nature of islet isolation technology, meeting clinical needs with such transplantation remains challenging. This has rendered the large-scale in vitro regeneration of human pancreatic islet tissue a global academic focal point, as highlighted by the Shanghai team.

Yin Hao, a principal researcher and head of the hospital’s Organ Transplant Center, revealed that the team utilized the patient’s peripheral blood mononuclear cells, reprogramming them into autologous induced pluripotent stem cells. Employing their proprietary technology, they transformed these cells into “seed cells” and reconstructed pancreatic islet tissue within an artificial milieu.

“Our technology has reached a level of maturity and has pushed the envelope in regenerative medicine for diabetes treatment,” stated Yin. His team collaborated with scientists from the Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

He detailed that the patient, who was at high risk of diabetes complications, had undergone a kidney transplant in June 2017 and had lost significant pancreatic islet functionality, necessitating multiple daily insulin injections.

The patient received the groundbreaking transplantation in July 2021. Eleven weeks post-surgery, he discontinued external insulin use, with oral hypoglycemic drugs gradually reduced and eventually ceased one year later. “Subsequent examinations indicated effective restoration of the patient’s pancreatic islet function, with renal function remaining within normal parameters,” Yin elaborated. “These outcomes imply that the treatment can avert the progression of diabetic complications.”