Diabetes is a life-long health condition where there is too much glucose in the blood because the body cannot use it properly.
Insulin is the hormone secreted by cells in the pancreas which breaks down sugar in the blood.
Healthy people have millions of ‘T-reg’ cells which stop the body’s immune system attacking these insulin-producing cells in the pancreas.
However, people with Type 1 diabetes do not have enough T-reg cells to protect the pancreas, and so it is attacked and stops making enough insulin.
Everyone diagnosed with Type 1 is treated with insulin, and the majority inject themselves with insulin multiple times daily.
Now, Californian researchers have found that T-reg cells can be removed from the body and increased by 1,500 times in a laboratory, the Telegraph reports.
Then, they can be put back into the bloodstream and will function normally to protect the insulin-producing cells.
A trial of 14 people found the treatment is safe – and lasts up to 12 months.
The people in the study were aged between 18 and 43 and had recently been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.
Doctors removed around two cups of blood containing two to four million T-reg cells.
These were separated from other cells and allowed to replicate in a laboratory, before being infused back into the blood.
A quarter was found to be there after 12 months, and they were able to protect the pancreas so it could continue to produce insulin.
Professor Jeffrey Bluestone, of the University of California San Francisco, told The Telegraph: ‘This could be a game-changer.
‘By using T-regs to “re-educate” the immune system, we may be able to really change the course of this disease.
‘We expect T-regs to be an important part of diabetes therapy in the future.’
The therapy could stop the need from regular insulin injections.
It could also stop the disease from progressing, leading to organ damage, blindness and limb amputations.
The team added that the treatment could be developed in future to help people with other autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.
It may even help people with cardiovascular disease, neurological disease and obesity.
The research was published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
Commenting on the study, Alasdair Rankin, of Diabetes UK, said: ‘Regulating the immune system in people with Type 1 diabetes to stop insulin producing cells being killed is an important part of research towards a cure.
‘The clinical study described today is exciting early research, but it will be some time before we know if it will become an effective treatment.’