A patient with diabetes was cured in China, but scientists around the world doubt it (3 photos)

There is hope for 422 million people. After all, according to WHO data, this is how many people suffered from diabetes worldwide in 2021, and now these figures are even higher.





A year ago, an experimental operation was performed in China, during which a 25-year-old woman with type 1 diabetes underwent a stem cell transplant. Literally 75 days later, her body began to produce insulin on its own. Her condition currently remains stable. Scientists are currently monitoring two more women who have undergone similar operations. So far, their condition is improving every day.

The results are intriguing, but they need to be replicated in more people, says Jay Skyler, an endocrinologist at the University of Miami in Florida who studies type 1 diabetes. Skyler also wants to make sure the woman’s cells continue to produce insulin for five years before she’s considered “cured.”



In April of this year, also in China, insulin-producing islets were successfully transplanted into the liver of a 59-year-old man with type 2 diabetes. And the patient no longer needs to take insulin.

James Shapiro, a transplant surgeon and researcher at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, says the results of the surgery are stunning. "They completely reversed diabetes in a patient who previously required significant amounts of insulin."



Chinese scientists are now preparing to conduct an expanded study on 20 patients with the same diagnosis.