Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and Stem Cell Therapy: A Review

Most public health statistics outline the rapidly exploding burden of Type 2 diabetes mellitus as a chronic endemic disease related to sedentary lifestyle and obesity. Tremendous efforts and resources are being invested in finding new medical treatments and alternative therapies through cell-based replacement strategies among other methods. Several types of cells continue to be under active research, including autologous islet cells, allogeneic cadaveric islet cells, embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells, bone marrow-derived hematopoietic and mononuclear cells, and mesenchymal stem cells of different sources. The objective of this review is to bring the reader up to speed on the efforts being spent in this field with a clear and critical approach to the difficult and sometimes futile methodology undermining the results obtained.