Chinese researchers achieved a significant breakthrough when they were able to heal a diabetic patient with a novel cell therapy, leaving him off medication in just three months. Teams from Shanghai Changzheng Hospital, the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Centre for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, and Renji Hospital worked together to achieve this outstanding accomplishment. On April 30, their research was published in the journal Cell Discovery.
The South China Morning Post reported that the patient had a cell transplant in July 2021. Remarkably, after eleven weeks, he stopped needing extra insulin. The patient steadily lowered and then stopped taking oral drugs for blood sugar management by the end of the first year following treatment. One of the primary researchers, Yin, stated that “follow-up examinations revealed that the patient’s pancreatic islet function had been effectively restored.” The patient has not taken insulin for 33 months at this point.
This discovery marks a substantial advancement in the field of cell therapy-based diabetic treatment. University of British Columbia professor Timothy Kieffer praised the work, saying, “I think this study represents an important advance in the field of cell therapy for diabetes.”
If left untreated, diabetes, a chronic illness that impairs the body’s capacity to convert food into energy, can have serious consequences. Insulin injections and ongoing monitoring are part of traditional treatment, which can be taxing for patients.
The novel treatment modifies the patient’s peripheral blood mononuclear cells to become “seed cells,” which in a lab setting can repair pancreatic islet tissue. This approach makes use of the body’s regenerative capacity, a developing field in regenerative medicine. “Our technology has matured and has pushed boundaries in regenerative medicine for diabetes treatment,” said Yin.