Clinical Application of Stem Cell Educator Therapy in Type 1 Diabetes

The SCE device is made of a hydrophobic material from FDA-approved (USP Class VI) dishes that tightly binds stem cells CB-SCs without interfering with their immune modulating capability. We originally designed a chamber for co-culture of lymphocytes and CB-SCs that included nine discs of the material with a flow pathway and adherent CB-SCs sandwiched between a top cover plate and a bottom collecting plate. In this trial, we are going to use the 12-layer SCE device. The SCE therapy carried a lower risk of infection than a typical blood transfusion, and did not introduce stem cells or reagents into the patients. In addition, CB-SCs have very low immunogenicity, and the CB-SCs cultured in the device are a highly restricted population and contain no CD3+ T cells or other lymphocyte subsets, eliminating the need for human leukocyte antigen (HLA) matching prior to treatment. This innovative approach has the potential to provide CB-SC-mediated immune modulation therapy for multiple autoimmune diseases while mitigating the safety and ethical concerns associated with other approaches such as T1D, type 2 diabetes (T2D), and alopecia areata (AA) in clinics. The relative simplicity of the approach may also provide cost and time savings relative to other approaches.