Diabetes Reversed in Islet Transplantation Preclinical Trial
Adding engineered human blood vessel-forming cells to islet transplants boosted the survival of the insulin-producing cells and reversed diabetes in a preclinical study led by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators. The new approach, which requires further development and testing, could someday enable the much wider use of islet transplants to cure diabetes.
Islets, found in the pancreas, are clusters of insulin-secreting and other cells enmeshed in tiny, specialized blood vessels. The insulin cells are killed by an autoimmune process in type 1 diabetes, which affects roughly nine million people worldwide. Although islet transplantation is a promising approach for treating such cases, the only FDA-approved method to date has significant limitations.
In a study published Jan. 29 in Science Advances, the researchers showed that special blood vessel-forming cells they developed, called “reprogrammed vascular endothelial cells” (R-VECs), can overcome some of these limitations by providing strong support for islets, allowing them to survive and reverse diabetes long-term when transplanted under the skin of mice.
“This work lays the foundation for subcutaneous islet transplants as a relatively safe and durable treatment option for type 1 diabetes,” said first author Dr. Ge Li, a postdoctoral research associate in the laboratory of senior author Dr. Shahin Rafii, director of the Hartman Institute for Therapeutic Organ Regeneration and the Ansary Stem Cell Institute, chief of the division of regenerative medicine and the Arthur B. Belfer Professor in Genetic Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine. Dr. Rafii is also a member of the Englander Institute for Precision Medicine and the Sandra and Edward Meyer Cancer Center at Weill Cornell Medicine.
