For the first time, a team of researchers in China has reversed type 1 diabetes by converting a woman’s own fat cells into insulin-producing cells. Led by Dr. Hongkui Deng at the Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences at Peking University, the team is reported to create new insulin-producing pancreatic cells that freed her from needing insulin injections for more than a year. This promising result, published in the journal Cell, has sparked new possibilities for long-term diabetes treatment.

New Approach to Insulin Production

As per a report by Livescience, the team extracted fat cells from a woman with type 1 diabetes and chemically reverted these cells to a highly adaptable, stem-like state. Then, using a series of lab techniques, the team reportedly converted them into insulin-producing islet cells, which are usually found in the pancreas. The report further mentioned that these reprogrammed cells were implanted in patient’s abdomen, where they began producing insulin to stabilise the blood sugar. The report mentions that withing 75 days, the patient no longer needed insulin injections.

Implications and Future Directions

This offers a fresh perspective on diabetes management and could be an alternative to conventional islet cell transplants. While islet transplants have shown success, they depend on scarce organ donations and require lifelong immunosuppressants, which limits their availability. However, the report mentions that this stem cell approach could produce an almost unlimited supply of cells. 

Challenges and Next Steps

One obstacle for broadening this treatment is developing a way to protect these cells from immune attacks without relying on strong immune-suppressing drugs. Dr. Herold pointed out that expanding the treatment’s availability would mean finding methods to keep transplanted cells from being destroyed by the immune system. Meanwhile, other biotech groups, such as Vertex Pharmaceuticals, are pursuing similar strategies, using lab-grown cells to balance blood sugar levels in diabetic patients without needing donor organs.