Scientists extracted fat cells from the patient, turned them into stem cells (induced pluripotent stem cells), then back into pancreatic islet cells now able to produce insulin. These functioning islet cells were then simply injected into the patient’s abdominal muscles. Injection into the abdominal wall minimized invasiveness and avoided inflammation compared to previous practices of injection into the liver. The entire injection procedure took less than half an hour.
Because the cells are from the patient’s own body, they don’t need a compatible donor and experience no immune rejection to the transplant.
Afterwards, the patient’s blood sugar levels became normal and they no longer needed external insulin.
Here’s the research paper link: https://www.cell.com/cell/abstract/S0092-8674(24)01022-5
So I went looking for more details on this story, and it seems like there is a bit of a catch here in that the patient here was (is?) taking immunosuppressants for the liver transplant mentioned in the SCMP article. (Source: https://archive.ph/4kUXJ) Of course, this is still great news and a major victory! The results of this treatment are incredible and very exciting for the future. The two other participants in this trial apparently also have had very positive results, and are approaching a year of being insulin injection free themselves. The SCMP story mentions that she had already undergone an unsuccessful pancreatic islet cell transplant, so hopefully the success of this treatment is a sign of great things to come.
By the way, does anyone know of a mirror for this research paper? I was hoping to give it a read, but it’s locked behind a paywall.
Here’s a link to the PDF for the research paper: https://libstc.cc/i/ulch6pvujtese4koqkp5algqgnnm6dbmnp27ay33ymmr26flkqwq?filename=transplantation-of-chemically-induced-pluripotent-stem-cell-derived-islets-under-abdominal-anterior-rectus-sheath-in-a-type-1-diabetes-patient.pdf
For research papers published pre-2020, you can paste the DOI into Scihub to get the PDF. For research papers post-2020, you can try going to libstc.cc and pasting the DOI.
Awesome, thank you! I knew about Scihub but this is my first time hearing about libstc.cc. Appreciate your help