Stem cell therapy shows promise for T2DM

While not a cure, mesenchymal stem cell therapy is able to effectively improve the control of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), reports a new meta-analysis.

From the databases of PubMed, Web of Science, Central, and Scopus, researchers identified 57 studies for analysis. Only those that were randomized controlled trials were eligible, and from each study, information about C-peptide and glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) levels, as well as insulin dose, were collected.

Three studies looked at the effect of mesenchymal stem cells on C-peptide levels and showed no considerable heterogeneity among them (p=0.109). However, cell therapy did not seem to exert any significant impact on C-peptide levels in T2DM patients (standardized mean difference [SMD], 0.2, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], –0.61 to 1.00).

On the other hand, pooled analysis of seven studies revealed that mesenchymal stem cell therapy significantly reduced HbA1c concentrations in patients (SMD, –1.45, 95 percent CI, –2.10 to –0.79). The evidence for this combined analysis showed significant heterogeneity (p=0.000).

The same was true for insulin dosage, which was significantly decreased following cell therapy (SMD, –1.40, 95 percent CI, –2.88 to 0.09), though with high heterogeneity of evidence (p=0.000).

“Based on present review and other studies, cell therapy is not a cure but is a clinically safe method for ameliorating diabetes mellitus. Broad investigations to study the precise effect of cell therapy on DM patients with more experimental details of humoral factors, cellular and molecular analysis, could be of great benefit in better conceiving this method in treatment of diabetes, especially T2DM,” researchers said.