In a groundbreaking study, a 25-year-old woman with type 1 diabetes has started producing her own insulin less than three months after receiving a transplant of reprogrammed stem cells derived from her own body.
Nature reports that in a world first, a 25-year-old woman from Tianjing, China, has achieved insulin independence after undergoing a transplant of reprogrammed stem cells, according to a study published in Cell Today. The woman, who has type 1 diabetes, started producing her own insulin less than three months after the transplant, making her the first person with the disease to be treated using cells extracted from her own body.
The study, led by cell biologist Deng Hongkui and his colleagues at Peking University in Beijing, involved extracting cells from three people with type 1 diabetes and reverting them into a pluripotent state, allowing them to be molded into any cell type in the body. The researchers modified the reprogramming technique originally developed by scientist Shinya Yamanaka, using small molecules instead of proteins to trigger gene expression, offering more control over the process.