A patient with type 1 diabetes has begun producing his own insulin after receiving a transplant of pancreatic cells.
For the first time in humans, these islet cells have been genetically edited so they wouldn't be rejected by the patient, removing the need for immunosuppressant drugs.
Type 1 diabetes usually begins when the immune system mistakenly attacks the islet cells in the pancreas, which are responsible for producing insulin. The condition is usually managed with a careful diet and regular insulin injections, but an emerging treatment involves replacing the damaged islet cells with functional ones.
In a new proof-of-concept study, a 42-year-old male patient, who had had type 1 diabetes since the age of 5, received a transplant of islet cells from a healthy donor. The cells we