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Diabetes: Can Stem Cells Help?

28.05.2026

11 mins of reading

By our Scientific Director Dr Ann Smith

[Updated May 2026]

Diabetes Facts and the Global Crisis

Diabetes represents a major health crisis worldwide. Approximately 537 million adults aged 20 to 79 are currently living with the condition and the total number of people with diabetes is projected to rise to 643 million by 2030 and 783 million by 2045.

Diabetes mellitus is not a single disease. All types share a common problem where the pancreas either does not produce enough insulin or the body cannot effectively use the insulin it produces. Insulin is a critical hormone that regulates blood sugar. Raised blood sugar, a condition called hyperglycaemia, is a common effect of uncontrolled diabetes and over time this leads to serious damage to many of the body’s systems.

Other types of diabetes include gestational diabetes, which some women may develop during pregnancy. Finally, there are other much rarer types of diabetes.

There are two main types of diabetes: Type 1 and Type 2. With Type 1 diabetes, historically known as juvenile diabetes, the body’s immune system mistakenly destroys its own pancreatic cells, meaning the pancreas cannot make any insulin at all. Type 2 diabetes differs because the insulin manufactured either does not work properly due to insulin resistance, or the body simply cannot produce enough insulin to keep up with demand. You can read more about the differences between type 1 and type 2 diabetes here.

In all types of diabetes, there is a build up of glucose in the blood because the pancreas cannot regulate it. This leads to many serious symptoms in the long term, including high blood sugar and damage to the heart, eyes, feet and kidneys. Unmanaged blood sugar levels can eventually cause nerve damage, chronic kidney disease, and even complete kidney failure. It is a stark fact that diabetes leads to almost 9600 leg, toe or foot amputations every year in the UK, which is equivalent to 185 per week.

At a Glance: Type 1 vs. Type 2 Diabetes

Feature	Type 1 Diabetes (T1D)	Type 2 Diabetes (T2D)
Root Cause	Autoimmune destruction of beta cells	Insulin resistance and systemic inflammation
Insulin Status	Complete lack of insulin production	Insulin is produced but the body resists it
Onset Age	Usually diagnosed in children and young adults	Historically adults, but increasingly seen in children
Primary Management	Daily insulin injections and continuous glucose tracking	Diet, exercise, oral medication, or exogenous insulin
Stem Cell Focus	Growing new β cells and using regulatory T cells	Mesenchymal stem cells to lower inflammation

More About Type 1 Diabetes

Around 10% of all people with diabetes have Type 1 diabetes. This is an autoimmune condition caused by immune cells called T cells that become inappropriately activated. These cells launch an aggressive autoimmune attack and kill the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. This results in reduced insulin levels and too much glucose in the blood. Why this happens is not fully understood, but diabetes research shows it is linked to a combination of genetic and environmental conditions.

Type 1 diabetes can affect people at any age, but usually develops in children or young adults. People with Type 1 diabetes need daily insulin injections to control their blood glucose levels. These diabetes patients must carefully monitor their blood sugar levels using modern tools like a continuous glucose monitor to make sure the level is in the correct balance and stays within a safe target range. If people with Type 1 diabetes do not have access to exogenous insulin, they will die.

More About Type 2 Diabetes

Around 90% of people with diabetes have Type 2 diabetes, which is largely the result of excess body weight and physical inactivity. Until recently, this type of diabetes was seen only in adults, but it is now also occurring increasingly frequently in children.

Symptoms may resemble those of Type 1 diabetes but are often less severe. As a result, the disease may be diagnosed several years after onset, after complications like kidney disease or vision loss have already occurred.

Insulin does an essential job in the body, as it allows the glucose in the blood to enter cells and fuel our bodies. With Type 2 diabetes, the body still breaks down carbohydrates from food and drink and turns it into glucose. The pancreas then responds by releasing insulin, but as this insulin cannot work properly due to cellular insulin resistance, the blood sugar levels keep rising. Ultimately, this can exhaust the pancreatic cells, meaning their body makes less and less insulin. This can lead to even higher blood sugar levels and lead to an increased risk of hyperglycaemia-related complications.

Treating Diabetes and the Potential for Stem Cell Therapy

Despite many decades of investigations uncovering the autoimmune mechanisms where the body destroys the pancreas in Type 1 diabetes, translating these findings into effective treatments has proven extremely challenging. The critical cells responsible for producing, storing and releasing insulin into the bloodstream are called beta cells, or β cells, and these are located in areas of the pancreas called pancreatic islets. These are the specific cells that are destroyed by the overactive immune response in patients with Type 1 diabetes.

The potential for stem cell therapy and cellular therapy has been widely recognised in recent years following a great deal of research, offering real hope for a permanent cure. Although most of the effort has been directed at Type 1 diabetes, some consideration has also been given to whether Type 2 diabetes may also benefit from stem cell treatment.

Clinical trials have shown that transplantation of pancreas and insulin-producing islet cells is feasible in Type 1 diabetes patients with poor blood sugar control. Over the past two decades, improvements in islet cell isolation and the use of immunosuppressive drugs to prevent immune rejection after transplant have increased the efficiency of pancreatic islet transplantation. Approximately 60% of patients with Type 1 diabetes who have received such transplants have achieved insulin independence 5 years after islet transplantation.

Entering a New Frontier: Recent Clinical Breakthroughs

We are currently standing in a new frontier of medical history. Recent clinical study data has turned theoretical science into actual regenerative medicine, moving us closer to widespread clinical use.

The Vertex Pharmaceuticals Trials

One of the most significant milestones comes from ongoing clinical trials sponsored by Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Investigators utilised a stem cell-derived, fully differentiated pancreatic islet cell therapy known as VX-880. In this clinical trial, the first patient enrolled received an infusion of these stem cell-derived insulin-producing cells. Within a single year, this patient achieved complete insulin independence, maintaining optimal blood sugar control within their target range without needing a single injection.

Updated data showed that all 12 patients who received the full dose of VX-880 demonstrated successful cell engraftment and produced their own insulin by day 90. Furthermore, 11 out of those 12 patients were able to drastically reduce or completely eliminate their use of exogenous insulin.

The Peking University Trial

In a parallel breakthrough, a research team led by scientist Deng Hongkui at Peking University achieved a world-first milestone using chemically induced pluripotent stem cells.

The research team took somatic cells from a 25-year-old woman who had suffered from severe Type 1 diabetes for years and reverted them to a pluripotent state. They then guided these cells to become functional pancreatic cells and transplanted them into her abdominal muscles. Just two and a half months following the transplant, the young woman achieved complete independence from daily insulin injections, successfully manufacturing her own insulin with zero negative side effects.

Overcoming the Major Challenges

Despite this incredible progress, there are major challenges associated with a critical shortage of pancreases and islets derived from human organ donors. There is also the massive hurdle of protecting these transplanted cells from being destroyed by the body’s immune system after a transplant.

To solve the supply problem, it is now possible to generate functional insulin-producing islet cells in the laboratory. These processes use either human embryonic stem cells or induced pluripotent stem cells, which are adult stem cells sourced from skin, blood, or bone marrow that have been genetically reprogrammed to change their type of cell.

In addition to looking at ways to increase the number of functional β cells in patients with diabetes, scientists are working on ways to protect replacement pancreatic cells from immune-mediated damage. Immunologists and bioengineers are engaged in a range of strategies to protect transplanted cells from immune attack.

One approach is to use cellular engineering to make the cells more resistant to attack. Another is to encapsulate the cells within semi-permeable membranes to protect them from the cells of the immune system. These capsules are porous, allowing small molecules such as glucose and insulin to pass through while protecting the beta cells from immune cells.

Another cutting-edge approach has focused on stem cell-based treatments to down-regulate the autoimmune destruction of beta cells. The strategy utilises laboratory-optimized regulatory T cells, or Tregs, which function to damp down overactive immune responses. Treg activity has been shown to be impaired in those with diabetes, so the technique aims to restore the balance.

To test regulatory T cells therapy in Type 1 diabetes, Phase 1 clinical trials have evaluated the safety and efficacy of infusing Tregs with the aim of reversing recent-onset disease. Children with newly diagnosed Type 1 diabetes received infusions of Tregs harvested from themselves, meaning they were autologous, which had been expanded in a laboratory. Outcome data indicated that the treatment was well-tolerated and safe, and some children became less dependent on insulin. At a 2-year follow-up, some still required lower doses of insulin, especially those who had received two doses of Tregs.

The safety and success of transferring autologous laboratory-expanded Tregs to recent-onset Type 1 diabetes patients was also tested in a Phase 2 clinical trial. However, even though the treatment was well-tolerated, patients failed to show a significant and sustained improvement over the long term.

The mixed results from these studies may be due to many factors, such as differences in patients and trial design, or whether this treatment works well as a standalone option. A new trial is currently evaluating the administration of an immunotherapy drug called IL-2 along with autologous Tregs to try to improve the survival and function of the transferred cells.

The Vital Role of Cord Blood and Cord Tissue

Apart from those cell types mentioned above, various other kinds of stem cells have been investigated in preclinical as well as clinical settings. Umbilical cord blood and umbilical cord tissue cells have proved to be exceptionally useful, providing several distinct advantages over other sources.

Importantly, umbilical cord-derived stem cells are readily available, can be obtained non-invasively during delivery, and carry no ethical complications. Their straightforward banking potential contributes to their importance and relevance in regenerative medicine applications.

The umbilical cord blood contains a diverse mixture of cells and is a major source of hematopoietic stem cells, which can develop into many different blood cell types to rebuild the immune system. Cord blood is also a rich source of pristine regulatory T cells. While mesenchymal stem cells are present in cord blood, the Wharton’s jelly layer inside the umbilical cord tissue has been shown to be exceptionally rich in these valuable cells.

Mesenchymal stem cells, or MSCs, have the ability to help heal or regenerate injured or diseased tissues using several modes of action. They can differentiate into certain different cell types, but more importantly, they are able to damp down harmful immune processes. They possess powerful anti-inflammatory potential and produce proteins that promote the healing of damaged tissues at sites of injury.

A recently published meta-analysis of clinical data revealed evidence for the superior efficacy of mesenchymal stem cells derived from cord tissue compared to those from cord blood in treating both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. In these scenarios, donated cord tissue and autologous cord blood are typically used.

For Type 2 diabetes patients, MSCs offer a unique benefit by targeting the systemic inflammation that drives insulin resistance, helping to repair cell receptors and support failing pancreatic cells. Despite some encouraging results, the authors highlighted that further clinical studies will be required to investigate the therapeutic efficacy of selected or enriched cord blood-derived cell populations.

In Australia, a research team has undertaken a world-first clinical investigation known as the CoRD study. This trial assesses whether the regulatory T cells and mesenchymal stem cells found in umbilical cord blood can stop the immune destruction of beta cells in the pancreas and protect children at risk from developing diabetes. The study has been recruiting high-risk children who have a close relative with Type 1 diabetes and have their cord blood stored in a private bank.

The pilot study involves eligible children receiving an infusion of their own pre-banked cord blood. The team hopes that the study will help in the understanding of the immune system in children at risk of developing diabetes and may highlight ways to prevent this lifelong disease in the near future.

Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical trials have successfully demonstrated the safety and feasibility of using mesenchymal stem cells in both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, which is setting the scene for more consolidation studies and innovative strategies.

The Future: From Bench to Bedside

The investigative landscape is continually evolving. Extensive pre-clinical work and clinical trial data have resulted in stem cell-based treatments being considered a genuinely promising option for diabetes treatment, especially for Type 1 diabetes.

However, many questions and technical hurdles still need to be solved. Well-standardized laboratory and banking protocols for clinical-grade cell products are required. Additionally, there is a crucial need for stringently designed randomized, controlled trials with larger patient cohorts.

Undoubtedly, despite the remaining obstacles, the application of stem cell-based therapies represents an exciting and highly viable approach for treating the lifelong burden of diabetes.

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