(US Sun) SCIENTISTS claim to have cured a man of type 2 diabetes.
The patient, 59, received groundbreaking cell therapy in 2021 and has been off all medication since 2022.
“This represents an important advance in the field of cell therapy for
“This represents an important advance in the field of cell therapy for diabetes,” Timothy Kieffer, a professor of cellular and physiological sciences at the University of British Columbia in Canada, who was not involved with the research, told South China Morning Post.
The patient was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes more than 25 years ago and had faced severe complications.
Despite having a kidney transplant in 2017, he had lost most of his pancreatic islet function, which is crucial for regulating blood glucose levels.
As a result, he relied on multiple daily insulin injections.
Researchers in Shanghai, China, used the man’s own blood cells to create stem cells, which were then converted to insulin-producing cells that keep blood sugar levels in check.
These were transplanted in July 2021 and within 11 weeks, he no longer required insulin jabs.
The man gradually reduced his oral medication for blood sugar control and came off it completely 12 months later.
Hao Yin, from Shanghai Changzheng Hospital, said: “Follow-up examinations showed that the patient’s pancreatic islet function was effectively restored and his renal function was within the normal range.
