Combinatorial treatment of bone marrow stem cells and stromal cell-derived factor 1 improves glycemia and insulin production in diabetic mice

Autologous intraarterial pancreatic bone-marrow mononuclear cells infusion in T2D patients: Changes on beta-cells function, insulin resistance, and inflammatory marker

BACKGROUND

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a progressive disease. Many drugs currently being used for the management of T2D have minimal effect on pancreatic beta cells regeneration. Cell-based therapies might provide potential benefits in this aspect.

METHODS

A pilot study in five T2D patients with 12 months follow-up was performed to evaluate the effect of autologous bone marrow mononuclear stem cells (BM-MNCs) infusion into pancreatic arteries on the insulin requirement, beta-cell function, insulin resistance, and systemic inflammatory marker (CRP).

RESULTS

The primary endpoint, a 50 % reduction of total insulin doses from baseline, was not achieved in this study. However, a trend of increasing fasting C-peptide (p = 0.07) and C-peptide 60' (p = 0.07) and 90' (p = 0.07) after a mixed-meal tolerance test was observed 12 months post-infusion compared to baseline levels. A similar result was observed for the homeostatic model assessment of beta cell function (HOMA1-B), an index for beta cell function. No improvement was observed for insulin resistance measured by homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA1-IR) and systemic inflammatory parameter.

CONCLUSION

Intraarterial pancreatic autologous BM-MNCs infusion might potentially improve beta cell function in T2D patients, although further study is needed to confirm this finding.

Inducible Pluripotent Stem Cells as a Potential Cure for Diabetes

Over the last century, diabetes has been treated with subcutaneous insulin, a discovery that enabled patients to forego death from hyperglycemia. Despite novel insulin formulations, patients with diabetes continue to suffer morbidity and mortality with unsustainable costs to the health care system. Continuous glucose monitoring, wearable insulin pumps, and closed-loop artificial pancreas systems represent an advance, but still fail to recreate physiologic euglycemia and are not universally available. Islet cell transplantation has evolved into a successful modality for treating a subset of patients with ‘brittle’ diabetes but is limited by organ donor supply and immunosuppression requirements. A novel approach involves generating autologous or immune-protected islet cells for transplant from inducible pluripotent stem cells to eliminate detrimental immune responses and organ supply limitations. In this review, we briefly discuss novel mechanisms for subcutaneous insulin delivery and define their shortfalls. We describe embryological development and physiology of islets to better understand their role in glycemic control and, finally, discuss cell-based therapies for diabetes and barriers to widespread use. In response to these barriers, we present the promise of stem cell therapy, and review the current gaps requiring solutions to enable widespread use of stem cells as a potential cure for diabetes.

Efficacy and safety of autologous bone marrow-derived stem cell transplantation in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: a randomized placebo-controlled study

There is a growing interest in cell-based therapies in T2DM as β-cell failure is progressive and inexorable with the advancing duration of disease. This prospective, randomized, single-blinded placebo-controlled study evaluates the efficacy and safety of autologous bone marrow-derived stem cell transplantation (ABMSCT) in T2DM. Twenty-one patients with triple oral antidiabetic drug failure and requiring insulin ≥0.4 IU per kg per day with HbA1c <7.5% were randomly assigned to an intervention (n = 11) and control group (n = 10) and followed for 12 months. Patients in the intervention group received ABMSCT through a targeted approach, and after 12 weeks, a second dose of stem cells was administered through the antecubital vein after mobilization with G-CSF, while the control group underwent a sham procedure. The primary end point was a reduction in insulin requirement by ≥50% from baseline while maintaining HbA1c <7%. Nine out of the 11 (82%) patients in the intervention group achieved the primary end point, whereas none of the patients in the control group did over the study period (p = 0.002). The insulin requirement decreased by 66.7% in the intervention group from 42.0 (31.0‐64.0) IU per day to 14.0 (0.0‐30.0) IU per day (p = 0.011), while in controls it decreased by 32.1% from 40.5 (31.8‐44.3) IU per day to 27.5 (23.5‐33.3) IU per day (p = 0.008) at 12 months. The reduction in insulin requirement was significantly more in the intervention group compared to controls at both 6 (p = 0.001) and 12 months (p = 0.004). There was a modest but nonsignificant increase in HbA1c (%) in cases from 6.9% (6.4‐7.2%) to 7.1% (6.6‐7.5%) as well as in controls from 6.9% (6.2‐7.0%) to 7.0% (6.9‐7.5%). Ten out of 11 (91%) patients could maintain HbA1c <7% in the intervention group, whereas 6 out of 10 did (60%) in the control group (p = 0.167). The glucagon-stimulated C-peptide significantly increased in treated cases compared to controls (p = 0.036). The decrease in insulin requirement positively correlated with stimulated C-peptide (r = 0.8, p = 0.001). In conclusion, ABMSCT results in a significant decrease in the insulin dose requirement along with an improvement in the stimulated C-peptide levels in T2DM. However, a greater number of patients with a longer duration of follow-up are required to substantiate these observations.

Bone marrow stem cell as a potential treatment for diabetes

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a group of metabolic diseases in which a person has high blood glucose levels resulting from defects in insulin secretion and insulin action. The chronic hyperglycemia damages the eyes, kidneys, nerves, heart, and blood vessels. Curative therapies mainly include diet, insulin, and oral hypoglycemic agents. However, these therapies fail to maintain blood glucose levels in the normal range all the time. Although pancreas or islet-cell transplantation achieves better glucose control, a major obstacle is the shortage of donor organs. Recently, research has focused on stem cells which can be classified into embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and tissue stem cells (TSCs) to generate functional β cells. TSCs include the bone-marrow-, liver-, and pancreas-derived stem cells. In this review, we focus on treatment using bone marrow stem cells for type 1 and 2 DM.