A Japanese hospital said Monday it has completed a clinical test to transplant induced pluripotent stem cells that produce insulin to treat a patient with type 1 diabetes, in a step that could ease the burden of injecting daily insulin shots.
Kyoto University Hospital performed the surgery in February using iPS cell-derived pancreatic islet cells to confirm the safety of the procedure for the autoimmune disease, which prevents the pancreas from making insulin.
The patient, who is healthy and has since been discharged, will be monitored for up to five years, the hospital said.
Daisuke Yabe, the Kyoto University professor who led the clinical trial, said at a press conference that the aim is to put the procedure “into practical use in the 2030s.”
The hospital is making preparations to conduct an operation on a second patient.
The clinical trial involved culturing the islet cells into a thin sheet, manufactured with the assistance of Orizuru Therapeutics Inc., a firm specializing in regenerative medicine, and transplanting them under the skin around the abdominal region.
People with type 1 diabetes can faint due to low blood sugar and are required to self-inject insulin into their body every day to manage glucose levels. Type 1 diabetes often occurs during their childhood.
Type 1 diabetes patients are estimated to be 139,000, Japan Preventive Association of Life-style related Disease said, citing 2020 data from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.
The iPS cell was developed by Nobel laureate Shinya Yamanaka, director emeritus at Kyoto University’s Center for iPS Cell Research and Application, for which he won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2012.
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