The woman completely stopped needing insulin injections 75 days after the transplant, and the improvement has lasted for over a year, the researchers revealed.

In a miraculous development, a 25-year-old woman has become world’s first patient to have her type 1 diabetes successfully reversed through a pioneering stem cell procedure.

The development marks monumental step in diabetes research. The patient, a 25-year-old who had the chronic condition for over a decade, was able to naturally regulate her blood sugar some 2½ months after undergoing the minimally invasive surgery, Shanghai-based news outlet The Paper reported on Saturday.

According to a report by the outlet, the surgery took just half an hour. The researchers have published their findings in the peer-reviewed journal Cell recently. Researchers from Tianjin First Central Hospital and Peking University were among those who took part in the study.

While, type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune condition where the body’s immune system destroys insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. Type 2 diabetes is linked to lifestyle factors.

Diabetes is a major health threat worldwide. According to the International Diabetes Federation, China has the highest number of cases globally, with over 140 million patients and a prevalence rate exceeding 12 per cent.

To do this, the researchers first collected adipose tissue cells from the patient and used small molecule chemicals to reprogramme these cells into pluripotent stem cells, South China Morning Post reported.

These cells were then transformed into islet cells and transplanted back into the patient’s body. As these pancreatic cells originated from the patient, there was no immune rejection.

According to media reports, the young woman from Tianjin was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes 11 years ago and had already undergone two liver transplants and one unsuccessful pancreatic islet cell transplant.

Following the CiPSC islet transplant, the patient’s fasting blood glucose levels gradually normalised, and her need for external insulin steadily decreased. She completely stopped needing insulin injections 75 days after the transplant, and the improvement has lasted for over a year, the researchers revealed.

At the one year mark, “the clinical data met all study endpoints with no indication of transplant-related abnormalities. Promising results from this patient suggest that further clinical studies assessing CiPSC islet transplant in type 1 diabetes are warranted”, the team noted in the paper.

According to a report on the website of the Peking University Health Science Centre: “This could pave the way for broader use of cell therapy in treating major diseases – a breakthrough that may represent one of the first instances of induced pluripotent stem technology curing a serious disease in clinical settings.”

The researchers maintain that long-term follow-up of the patient’s recovery would still be necessary.

“Two additional participants in this clinical study will reach their one-year follow-up by the end of this year,” The Paper’s report said.

Source: financialexpress