A stem cell treatment has reversed a 25-year-old woman's Type 1 diabetes, a study last week found. The case marks the first in which a patient with Type 1 was treated using cells from her own body.
Researchers at Beijing's Peking University extracted patient cells and reverted them to their pluripotent state. They then developed these cells into the insulin-producing islet cells responsible for turning glucose into energy—a process attacked by the body when a person has Type 1 diabetes.
The team tested the cells in mice and primates for safety. Then, in June 2023, they reinjected 1.5 million cells into the patient's abdomen. Two and a half months later, the patient was producing enough insulin on her own to forgo other treatments.
