World's First! Chinese Scientists Achieve Regenerative Islet Transplantation, Bringing Hope for Clinical Cure of Type 1 Diabetes
Release time:
2025-03-31
A milestone breakthrough has been achieved in diabetes treatment. The research team led by Cheng Xin from the Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with Professor Yin Hao's team from the Second Affiliated Hospital of Naval Medical University (Shanghai Changzheng Hospital), has successfully reconstructed islet function in patients with type 1 diabetes for the first time internationally, using stem cell-derived "regenerative islet" tissue via minimally invasive transplantation. This marks China's leading position in the development of curative therapies for diabetes. The findings were published online today (Beijing time) in the prestigious international medical journal The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.
Breaking the Deadlock of an "Incurable Disease"
Type 1 diabetes mainly affects children and adolescents. It is caused by the immune system mistakenly attacking the pancreatic islet beta cells, leading to absolute insulin deficiency. For a long time, this has been regarded as an irreversible chronic disease, requiring patients to rely on lifelong exogenous insulin injections. This not only causes inconvenience in daily life but also exposes patients to life-threatening risks such as hypoglycemic coma, kidney failure, blindness, and cardiovascular diseases. Although traditional pancreas or islet transplantation can effectively improve the condition, the scarcity of human organ donors makes this treatment inaccessible to the vast majority of patients. "How to achieve large-scale 'mass production' and functional reconstruction of islet tissue" has long been a global challenge in the medical community.
Twenty Years of Perseverance: In Vitro Production of Regenerative Islets
To address this challenge, the Chinese research team, after more than two decades of intensive work, established a novel technology system based on endoderm stem cells. Using this system, scientists successfully "reconstructed" functional islet tissue in vitro—regenerative islets, termed E-islets. These regenerative islets closely mimic natural islets in cellular composition and structure. After being implanted into patients via minimally invasive infusion into the portal vein of the liver, they function like native organs—sensitively sensing blood glucose changes and autonomously secreting insulin—thereby achieving long-term stable regulation of blood glucose.
Clinical Validation: From Exogenous Injection to Autonomous Regulation
In this clinical study published in The Lancet journal's subspecialty, the team enrolled three patients who received either autologous or allogeneic regenerative islet transplants and were systematically evaluated under different immunosuppressive regimens. The results showed that regardless of whether the stem cells came from the patients themselves or from donors, regenerative islet transplantation successfully achieved reconstruction of islet function. Most encouragingly, post-transplant patients became independent of exogenous insulin, regaining autonomous regulation of blood glucose. This means that for some patients, a disease once considered to require lifelong injections has achieved functional cure in a clinical sense.
Future Outlook: The Ultimate Cure with Regenerative Medicine
Although this clinical trial has achieved great success, the current treatment regimen still requires the use of immunosuppressive drugs to prevent recurrent autoimmune attacks and rejection. In response, the research team stated that future efforts will focus on optimizing gene-editing techniques. They aim to genetically modify the regenerative islets to make them "invisible" to the immune system, thereby completely eliminating the need for immunosuppressants. Industry experts commented that this research not only brings hope for a cure for type 1 diabetes patients but also provides a valuable "Chinese solution" for regenerative medicine treatments for other organ injuries or failures. With further refinement and dissemination of the technology, diabetes treatment may enter an entirely new era.
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