Doctors in China cure world’s first diabetes patient with cell therapy

In a breakthrough achievement in medical field, a team of Chinese scientists and doctors have cured world’s first diabetes patient using cell therapy.

Reportedly, the 59-year-old patient who suffered from type-2 diabetes for 25 years and faced severe complications from the disease was cured through the transplantation of pancreatic cells derived from stem cells.

This pioneering treatment, developed by a team from Shanghai Changzheng Hospital, the Centre for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Renj Hospital, was published in the journal Cell Discovery on April, a Times of India report said.

The team, led by Yin Hao, a leading researcher at the hospital, used and programmed the patient’s own peripheral blood mononuclear cells and transformed them into “seed cells.”. They reconstituted pancreatic islet tissues in an artificial environment.

"Our technology has matured and it has pushed boundaries in the field of regenerative medicine for the treatment of diabetes," said Yin, whose team conducted the research with scientists from the Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Yin further said that “follow-up examinations showed that the patient's pancreatic islet function was effectively restored, and his renal function was within normal range.” 

"Such results suggested that the treatment can avoid the progression of diabetic complications,” he added.

It is the first reported instance in the world of a case of diabetes with severely impaired pancreatic islet function being cured via stem cell-derived autologous, regenerative islet transplantation, the hospital said.

“I think this study represents an important advance in the field of cell therapy for diabetes,” Timothy Kieffer, a professor in the Department of Cellular and Physiological Sciences at the University of British Columbia, told South China Morning Post (SCMP) on May 27.

Researchers around the world are looking into islet transplants as a potential treatment for the chronic condition. Diabetes is one of the most common and serious health condition that can lead to severe complications, including blindness, kidney failure, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular complications, and amputation. Life-threatening situations may also occur due to hypoglycemic coma, and ketoacidosis, which happens when the body begins breaking down fat too quickly.

Reportedly, China is the country with the largest diabetic patient population with 140 million diabetes patients in the country. Of those, about 40 million depend on lifelong insulin injections, according to the International Diabetes Federation.