Innovative Transplant Approach: Preclinical Study on Type 1 Diabetes Treatment

Stanford Medicine researchers have shown that a combined hematopoietic and islet transplant fully prevented or reversed autoimmune Type 1 diabetes in mice, eliminating the need for exogenous insulin or chronic immunosuppression during six months of follow‑up.

The team tested prevention and reversal cohorts in autoimmune mice: prevention occurred in 19 of 19 animals and reversal (cure) in 9 of 9 previously diabetic animals. Donors were immunologically mismatched to recipients, and the protocol used transient preconditioning rather than long‑term immunosuppression. Primary endpoints were prevention or reversal of hyperglycemia and sustained insulin independence at six months.

Donor hematopoietic cells engrafted and produced mixed chimerism with recipient immunity; investigators detected donor‑derived immune cells systemically and demonstrated functional protection of islets without graft‑versus‑host disease within the study interval.