Stem Cell Therapy for Diabetes Treatment

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a widespread metabolic disease characterized by the disruption of blood glucose regulation, primarily caused by dysfunctional pancreatic beta (β)-cells. For the repair of β-cells, alternative approaches such as embryonic stem cells, mesenchymal stem cells, and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are on the agenda due to the limitations of factors such as donor deficiency in islet cell transplantation treatment. It is aimed to produce real β-cells with the contributions of stem cell-based clinical studies conducted in recent years. In this chapter, stem cell transplantation is considered an alternative stem cellbased therapy in diabetes for insulin independence through various means such as β-cell differentiation and β-cell repair. Current and traditional treatment methods applied in Type 1 diabetes and Type 2 diabetes are not sufficient to prevent the devastating damage of microvascular and macrovascular complications. For this reason, promising stem cell approaches have been discussed in DM as well as its complications. This chapter focuses on the curative potential of cells with excellent differentiation ability, such as embryonic, adult, and iPSCs, in DM and its complications, which despite the discovery of insulin remain fatal.

Cite this article as: Ekmekçi AM, Abusalim M, Erbaş O. Stem Cell Therapy for Diabetes Treatment. JEB Med Sci 2024;5(1):60-68.

The authors declared no conflicts of interest with respect to the authorship and/or publication of this article.

The authors received no financial support for the research and/or authorship of this article.