Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a group of disorders of carbohydrate, protein, and fat metabolism caused by absolute or relative insulin secretion insufficiency and/or insulin utilization disorder, with hyperglycemia as the main sign. It is the third largest non-communicable chronic disease in humans after cancer and cardiovascular disease, with an estimated 537 million people worldwide by 2021.
Diabetes itself is not scary. What is scary is various complications, up to more than 100. It is a disease with the most known complications. Most of the complications of diabetes are gradual development, which will cause irreversible damage to the patient's body, such as diabetic foot, diabetic nephropathy, etc., which make patients suffer.
Current treatments for diabetes typically include oral and injectable anti-sugar drugs, which can relieve hyperglycemia or temporarily improve insulin sensitivity in the body's tissues, but they can neither reverse insulin resistance nor beta-cell dysfunction. Therefore, conventional therapy cannot fundamentally cure patients, but stem cell therapy can reshape the function of beta cells in patients and fundamentally treat diabetes.
With the rise of regenerative medicine, stem cell transplantation technology has also attracted much attention in the treatment of diabetes. Stem cells have the ability of self-renewal, multi-directional differentiation and secretion of cytokines. Stem cells can differentiate into islet beta cells to repair damaged islet tissue. In addition, stem cells can secrete a variety of biologically active cytokines and growth factors, which can promote the repair and regeneration of damaged islet tissue by regulating the local microenvironment, providing a new direction for the intervention of type 2 diabetes.
The mechanism of action of stem cells in the treatment of type 2 diabetes:
Improve insulin resistance: secrete a variety of cytokines to improve insulin resistance in peripheral tissues, promote sugar absorption, and reverse the hyperglycemia state in the body.
Promote the regeneration of pancreatic islet β cells: Stem cells can reduce the progressive damage of islets caused by metabolic disorders and regenerate islet β cells; they secrete a variety of cytokines to improve the microenvironment, induce the transformation of islet α cells to β cells, and realize pancreatic islet β cells. In situ regeneration of β cells, thereby maintaining blood glucose homeostasis.
Immune regulation: Stem cells can inhibit the immune response mediated by T cells against newborn β cells, and promote the repair and regeneration of pancreatic islets.
Researchers at the University of Illinois Department of Medicine have demonstrated that stem cells can play a role in the treatment of type 2 diabetes through their immunomodulatory effects. The results showed that stem cells could reverse the immune disorders of type 2 diabetes and balance the production of Th1/Th2/Th3 cytokines through the immunomodulation of monocytes, thereby improving glucose metabolism, insulin resistance and islet function. At present, clinical studies have shown that the overall intervention effect of stem cell transplantation in patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes can reach 80-90%, and patients can reduce the original oral drug dose and insulin dose after receiving stem cell therapy; some patients can gradually achieve Get rid of your dependence on insulin or even oral medications.
In 2008, "Frontiers of Medicine", Ranhua JIANG and other 10 subjects (duration ≥ 3 years) received 3 times of mesenchymal stem cell reinfusion, and the interval between each infusion was 1 month. The mean number of stem cells infused per subject was 1.35×10 6 /kg, and insulin was continued during this period, adjusted for blood glucose levels, and followed for 6 months.
treatment effect:
Decreased insulin requirements: After 3 stem cell transplants, the mean requirement decreased from an average of 63.7 units to 34.7 units, with a >50% reduction in 1 subject.
Glycated hemoglobin reduction: Stem cells significantly improved HbA1c levels in subjects with type 2 diabetes, with a statistically significant reduction from 9.8% to 6.7% on average.
Improvement of C-peptide levels: The correlation analysis between C-peptide and insulin before and after stem cell transplantation was performed, and it was found that C-peptide and insulin had a significant positive correlation, γ = 0.992 (P < 0.01) and γ = 0.931 (P < 0.01) ).
The above findings suggest that mesenchymal stem cell transplantation is a safe and effective therapy for improving glucose metabolism and pancreatic islet function in patients with type 2 diabetes. Blood lipid levels and baseline islet function may be key factors influencing the outcome of mesenchymal stem cell transplantation in patients with type 2 diabetes. Stem cell transplantation technology will bring hope for diabetic patients to recover.
Strong pertinence
Stem cells have the function of directional migration, which can migrate to damaged or senescent lesions with the blood circulation, play a role in regeneration and repair, replace damaged or senescent cells, restore the damaged function, and at the same time regulate the immune system to return to a normal state, the immune system will No longer attacks insulin-producing cells, reducing islet cell apoptosis.
Safe and no side effects
Cell preparations are prepared in standard laboratory operations, and have passed a number of safety tests. They do not contain any harmful bacteria, viruses, endotoxins, chemicals, heavy metals, organic substances and other harmful substances, and have no serious adverse reactions, ensuring safety. Stem cells are primitive undifferentiated cells with very low immunogenicity and basically do not cause allergic reactions.
Good long-term curative effect
Stem cells infused into the body can survive in the in vivo environment for a long time, and play a role in repairing damage and immune monitoring for several years, reducing the recurrence rate of patients, and patients do not need to undergo multiple treatments.
Multiple therapeutic effects
While treating diabetes, stem cells will also repair other lesions in the body, improve the overall health of patients, prevent potential diseases in advance, and reduce the incidence of diseases.
Updated: Jun 02, 2022
