Health Kyoto University Hospital to treat diabetes with iPS cells

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The Kyoto University Hospital is conducting a clinical trial to develop a potential treatment for severe Type 1 diabetes using induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. These cells are reprogrammed to function as pancreatic islet cells, which produce hormones that regulate blood sugar levels. The hospital plans to start the trial early next February, transplanting iPS cells into three patients. If successful, this groundbreaking treatment could eliminate the need for daily insulin injections for Type 1 diabetes patients. In Japan, an estimated 100,000 to 140,000 people suffer from this condition.

A colony of human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells​

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Pending the results of the clinical trial, researchers are hoping that a transplant treatment using iPS cell-derived pancreatic cells will be available in the 2030s. The trial involves sheets of such pancreatic cells transplanted into three patients with severe Type 1 diabetes. The patients — between the ages of 20 and 65 — will also receive immunosuppressants and insulin treatments during the trial. The researchers will use iPS cell-derived pancreatic islet cells developed by Taro Toyoda, a lecturer at the university's Center for iPS Cell Research and Application (CiRA). Shinya Yamanaka, the founding director of CiRA, won a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2012 for his discovery of iPS cells, which are mature cells that can be reprogrammed to turn into any cell.

Kyoto University Hospital seeks to treat Type 1 diabetes using iPS cells

Researchers will begin clinical trial of a treatment as early as next year, which they hope will become available in the 2030s.

www.japantimes.co.jp