Rebuilding Beta-Cell Function: Advances In Replacement, Preservation And Regeneration

Since the life-saving discovery of insulin in 1921, multiple approaches have been developed to improve long-term outcomes in patients with type 1 diabetes (T1D). While technological advance such as closed-loop insulin delivery systems are now well known to most endocrinologists, biological approaches to restore beta-cell mass remain less widely recognized but are rapidly evolving. Since 2021, islet transplantation has been covered by the French national health insurance system. Nevertheless, islet allotransplantation requires complex isolation procedures from brain-dead donors, limiting access to a sufficient islet mass and requiring lifelong immunosuppression. Therefore, alternative strategies have been developed to restore the beta-cell pool: preservation of residual beta cells, or regeneration. A major advance in beta-cell preservation was the marketing authorization of teplizumab by the FDA (2022) and the European Medicines Agency (2025). This anti-CD3 monoclonal antibody has been shown to delay the onset of clinical T1D in individuals with stage 2 disease. Beta-cell regeneration encompasses several approaches: differentiation from stem cells, proliferation of existing beta cells, dedifferentiation, neogenesis from ductal cells, and transdifferentiation of endocrine, exocrine or extra-pancreatic cells. Three of these pathways led to major breakthroughs in 2025. Firstly, insulin independence under immunosuppression was achieved at 1 year in 83% of patients after intraportal transplantation of human embryonic stem-cell-derived islets. Secondly, insulin independence was reported in China in individual cases following transplantation of autologous chemically induced pluripotent stem-cell-derived islets or allogeneic stem-cell-derived islets. And thirdly, stable human C-peptide production was observed 12 months after intra-muscular transplantation of engineered hypoimmune islets without immunosuppression. The present review summarizes these recent advances, from experimental models to clinical applications, opening up new perspectives for cell-based therapies in T1D.