Research news

Stem cell research, in plain words

What published studies are finding, from the first approvals in Japan to research in Mexico, in diabetes, Parkinson's disease, heart failure and blood disorders. Every story links to its original source.

17 stories5 from MexicoChecked against the sources on October 28, 2026

Research reports, not our treatments

These stories summarize research by independent teams. The therapies they describe are specific products made and tested by those teams, in clinical trials or under an approval for one use in one country. RegenerateMX does not offer any of them, and its programs are not treatments for the conditions in these stories. A study result does not mean a therapy will work for any one person; for questions about your own health, ask your physician.

Latest from the research

Stem cell news

Newest first

A world first

2 treatments made from iPS cells, approved in Japan for heart failure and Parkinson's disease

Approvals

Japan approves the world's first treatments made from iPS cells

Japan's health ministry granted conditional, time-limited approval to two products made from donor iPS cells: sheets of heart-muscle cells for severe heart failure caused by narrowed or blocked coronary arteries, and early-stage dopamine-producing nerve cells for Parkinson's disease. In the trials behind the approvals, all eight heart patients had fewer symptoms and better heart function, and all six Parkinson's patients who could be evaluated were producing dopamine from the transplanted cells. It comes about 20 years after Shinya Yamanaka's team at Kyoto University first created iPS cells.

Stage: Conditional approval, JapanStudy size: 8 and 7 patients in the trials

Keep in mind

Both trials were small, so the approvals are conditional: effectiveness must be confirmed in actual treatment within seven years before full approval can be sought. Public health insurance began covering the Parkinson's cells in May and the heart sheets on September 1.

Showing 17 stories

Heart

First patient treated with an approved iPS cell product is recovering well

On September 29, surgeons at Osaka Keisatsu Hospital in Japan attached sheets of heart-muscle cells, grown from donor iPS cells, to the heart of a woman in her 50s with severe heart failure after a heart attack. It is the first time an approved iPS cell product has been used to treat a patient. At a press conference on October 21 the team reported a recovery without complications: she was walking in the hospital and was due to go home the next day.

Stage: First treatment after approvalStudy size: 1 patient

Keep in mind

One patient, one month after surgery. The product's approval is conditional and time-limited: it must show its effectiveness in further patients by 2033, and the developer plans to treat 75.

Blood & immune

Mexico authorizes its first clinical trial of CAR-T cells made in the country

On October 1, COFEPRIS, Mexico's health regulator, authorized a trial of CAR-T cell therapy for adults with acute lymphoblastic leukemia that has come back or has not responded to standard treatment. The university hospital of the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, in Monterrey, will carry out the whole process on site, from collecting and genetically modifying the immune cells to quality control and giving them to the patient. It is the first trial in Mexico of CAR-T cells produced in the country; making them locally is meant to widen access and lower the cost, as Spain, Brazil and India have done.

Where: Monterrey, MexicoStage: Trial authorizedStudy size: Patient numbers not announced

Keep in mind

CAR-T cells are immune cells (T cells) genetically modified to recognize and attack cancer cells; they are not stem cells. The trial will look first at safety and early signs of benefit, and no results have been reported yet. While it is being studied, the therapy is given only to people enrolled in the trial.

Blood & immune

A rare immune disorder: one infusion of corrected blood stem cells, followed for up to 13 years

Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome is a rare inherited disorder of the immune system and the platelets that exposes children to severe infections and bleeding. Researchers in Milan corrected the faulty gene in each patient's own blood-forming stem cells and returned them in a single infusion. In 27 patients, treated at a median age of 2.6 years and followed for at least 5.7 years, survival was 96% at one and at five years, and severe infections and bleeding fell markedly. Published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Stage: Long-term follow-upStudy size: 27 patients

Keep in mind

A very rare disease and a small group of patients, gathered from two trials and an expanded-access program. The investigators report that none of the adverse events was attributable to the gene therapy itself.

Brain & nerves

Spinal cord injury: no tumors up to four years after iPS cell transplants

In the first study of its kind, Keio University researchers transplanted nerve stem and progenitor cells made from iPS cells into the injured spinal cords of four people with recent (subacute) injuries. Up to four years later, no tumors or serious side effects attributable to the cells have been found, and gains in movement at one year exceeded those of a comparison group of past patients. Published in Nature Medicine.

Stage: Long-term follow-upStudy size: 4 patients

Keep in mind

Four participants, compared with past patients rather than with a randomized control group. The team plans a trial for long-standing (chronic) injuries and aims to start recruiting in 2027.

Brain & nerves

Parkinson's disease: lab-made dopamine cells pass a first safety test in Sweden

In the STEM-PD trial, led from Lund University, eight people with Parkinson's disease received transplants of dopamine nerve cell precursors grown from stem cells. No serious side effects directly linked to the cells were seen in the first year, brain scans gave early signs that the grafts survived, and six of the seven participants who completed follow-up substantially reduced their dopamine medication. Published in Nature Medicine.

Stage: Early trial (phase 1/2)Study size: 8 patients

Keep in mind

A first-in-human trial built to test safety. Participants took immune-suppressing drugs for 12 months, one died of a lung infection not directly related to the cells, and symptoms stayed stable in the first year.

Blood & immune

Sickle cell disease and β‑thalassemia: gene-edited stem cells in children aged 5 to 11

Twenty-six children received a one-time infusion of their own blood-forming stem cells, edited with CRISPR to switch fetal hemoglobin back on. All eight children with β-thalassemia who were followed for at least 16 months no longer needed regular transfusions, and all eight with sickle cell disease followed that long were free of vaso-occlusive crises, the painful episodes of the disease. Published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Stage: Late-stage trials (phase 3)Study size: 26 children

Keep in mind

Before the infusion, children receive high-dose chemotherapy (busulfan) to make room in the bone marrow. Every child had at least one severe side effect, and two developed a serious liver complication linked to that chemotherapy; one of them died.

Blood & immune

Leukemia: donor stem cells edited so that cancer drugs can spare the new blood system

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis used CRISPR to remove a protein called CD33 from donor stem cells before transplanting them into 30 adults with acute myeloid leukemia or myelodysplastic syndrome at high risk of relapse. The idea: a drug aimed at CD33 can then attack remaining cancer cells while sparing the new blood system. In all 30 patients the transplanted cells took hold by day 28. Published in Nature Medicine.

Stage: Early trial (phase 1/2)Study size: 30 adults

Keep in mind

An early-phase trial. Patients also received a CD33-targeted maintenance drug as a proof of concept; whether the approach lowers relapse rates still has to be shown in larger studies.

Blood & immune

In Monterrey, a test for leftover leukemia after a transplant flagged who was likely to relapse

Doctors at the university hospital of the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León reviewed 145 patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia who had received blood stem cells from a fully matched or a half-matched donor, as outpatients and after a lower-intensity preparation. A very sensitive lab test looked for leftover leukemia cells (minimal residual disease) before the transplant and within 100 days after it. Of the 24 patients who tested positive after the transplant, 17 relapsed and 15 died; the authors link a positive test after transplant with lower survival.

Where: Monterrey, MexicoStage: Review of past casesStudy size: 145 patients

Keep in mind

One hospital, with records reviewed after the fact, so it shows a link rather than cause and effect. The test is a warning sign, not a treatment; the study did not test what to do for patients who test positive.

Blood & immune

β‑thalassemia: five patients stop transfusions after a one-time stem cell infusion

In a phase 1 trial reported in Nature, five people with severe β-thalassemia received a single infusion of their own blood stem cells, modified with base editing to reactivate the gene for fetal hemoglobin. All of them stopped regular red blood cell transfusions within a month, and their hemoglobin levels held or improved over a median follow-up of 23 months.

Stage: Early trial (phase 1)Study size: 5 patients

Keep in mind

Five patients. Further research in more people, over a longer period, is needed to confirm the results.

Brain & nerves

Epilepsy: lab-grown inhibitory nerve cells calm seizures in an early trial

Inhibitory nerve cells (interneurons) made from human pluripotent stem cells were injected once into the region of the brain where seizures start, in adults with drug-resistant temporal lobe epilepsy. In the five people on the lower dose, disabling seizures fell by a median of 92% in months 7 to 12, and all four with marked reductions in the first year kept their seizure control in the second year, after their immune-suppressing drugs were stopped.

Stage: Early trial (phase 1/2)Study size: 10 patients in this update

Keep in mind

Early, open-label results, presented at a scientific meeting by the company developing the therapy. A randomized phase 3 trial against a sham (placebo) procedure was planned for the second half of 2025.

Blood & immune

In Mexico, about half of the patients cleared for a stem cell transplant received one within two years

Doctors at three referral hospitals in Monterrey, Mexico City and Puebla, led by the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, followed 374 adults with blood diseases who were found eligible for a donor stem cell transplant between 2015 and 2020. Within two years, 53% had received one. Among those who had not, the most common reason was that the disease progressed first (58%), followed by a shortage of hospital beds (35%) and other illnesses (32%). A missing donor explained only 12%, because transplants from half-matched relatives have widened the choice of donors. Patients treated in outpatient transplant programs, and those with public health insurance, were much more likely to receive a transplant.

Where: Monterrey, Mexico City and PueblaStage: Review of past cases, 3 hospitalsStudy size: 374 adults

Keep in mind

Records reviewed after the fact, in three hospitals. Patients who received a transplant lived longer (30 versus 12 months in the study's analysis), but a look-back study cannot show that the transplant alone made the difference. Within two years, 21% of the patients who had a transplant died of causes related to it.

Eyes

Mexico City scientists turn a boy's skin cells into iPS cells to study a rare eye malformation

Geneticists at the Conde de Valenciana Institute of Ophthalmology, working with researchers at UNAM, reprogrammed skin cells from a 10-year-old boy into iPS cells. He was born without the lens of the eye and with a white, opaque cornea, caused by a change in both copies of a gene called FOXE3. The new cell line shows the normal features of stem cells and is registered so that other researchers can use it to study, in the lab, how the front of the eye forms.

Where: Mexico CityStage: Lab researchStudy size: Cells from 1 patient

Keep in mind

A research tool, not a treatment: cells from one patient, for studying the condition in the lab. Nothing was transplanted.

Diabetes

Type 1 diabetes: 10 of 12 people off insulin injections a year after stem cell-derived islets

Insulin-producing islet cells grown from stem cells were infused into the liver's portal vein in people with type 1 diabetes whose bodies made no insulin of their own. Every participant began producing insulin. All 12 who received the full dose had no severe low blood sugar episodes and reached an HbA1c below 7%, and 10 of the 12 were not using insulin injections one year later. Published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Stage: Early trial (phase 1/2)Study size: 14 patients, 12 on the full dose

Keep in mind

Participants must take immune-suppressing drugs to protect the cells. Two died during the study, one of a brain infection (cryptococcal meningitis) and one of the progression of an existing dementia. The authors call it a small, short-term study.

Eyes

Eye injuries: a patient's own stem cells restore the surface of the cornea

Surgeons at Mass Eye and Ear took a small biopsy of stem cells from each patient's healthy eye, grew them into a tissue graft over two to three weeks and transplanted it into the injured eye. In 14 people followed for 18 months, the investigators report that the treatment was more than 90 percent effective at restoring the surface of the cornea, with no serious events in the donor or the treated eyes. Published in Nature Communications.

Stage: Early trial (phase 1/2)Study size: 14 patients

Keep in mind

A small trial, and the procedure remains experimental. It only suits patients with damage to one eye, because the cells come from the healthy one.

Heart

Heart failure: lab-grown heart-muscle patches build new muscle in a failing heart

A team at the University Medical Center Göttingen grew patches of heart muscle from iPS cells and showed in rhesus macaques that implanting them can rebuild muscle in the failing heart. In a first human case, reported with the animal results in Nature, the researchers observed new heart muscle developing in a failing human heart. A clinical trial in people with advanced heart failure was under way when the results were published.

Stage: Animal study and a first patientStudy size: Rhesus macaques and 1 patient

Keep in mind

Animal results and a single human case. Recipients need immune-suppressing drugs, and the trial will show whether the patch is safe and effective in more people.

Brain & nerves

A UNAM team grafts stem cell-made dopamine neurons into monkeys with a Parkinson's-like condition

Researchers at UNAM's Institute of Cellular Physiology and Mexico's National Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery grew young dopamine-producing neurons from human embryonic stem cells and transplanted them into the brains of two monkeys with a Parkinson's-like condition caused by a toxin. Over ten months, the two grafted monkeys moved somewhat better in some tasks, brain scans showed the grafts, and the grafted area released more dopamine. The cells survived without forming tumors.

Where: Mexico CityStage: Animal studyStudy size: 2 monkeys, plus 1 for comparison

Keep in mind

Two monkeys, on drugs that suppress the immune system, and one monkey given a sham operation for comparison. The authors say the results need to be confirmed in larger groups. This was not tested in people.

How to read stem cell news, step by step

A headline rarely says how far along a therapy is. These are the steps every one of them has to climb, and the words you will meet on the way.

  1. Phase 1: is it safe?

    A small group, often a few dozen people or fewer. The main question is safety and the dose, not benefit.

  2. Phase 2: does it seem to work?

    More people, often up to a few hundred, sometimes compared with a control group, to look for signs of benefit and to watch side effects.

  3. Phase 3: does it work better?

    Hundreds or thousands of people, usually assigned at random and sometimes compared with a sham procedure, to show whether it works better than the alternative.

  4. Approval: one product, one use

    A regulator reviews the evidence for one product, for one use, in one country. A conditional approval still has to prove itself in patients.

iPS cells
Induced pluripotent stem cells: adult cells, such as skin or blood cells, reprogrammed in the lab so they can become almost any cell type.
Blood-forming stem cells
The stem cells in the bone marrow that make every type of blood cell. Transplants of them have been used in medicine for decades.
Progenitor cells
Cells partway to becoming one specific type, such as a dopamine-producing nerve cell, grown to that stage before a transplant.
Gene editing
Changing a cell's DNA at a chosen spot, with tools such as CRISPR or base editing, before the cells are given back to the patient.
Half-matched donor
A relative, such as a parent, child, brother or sister, who shares half of the patient's tissue type. Newer transplant methods let these relatives donate, so far fewer patients go without a donor.
CAR-T cells
Immune cells (T cells), genetically modified in the lab to recognize and attack cancer cells, then given to the patient. They are not stem cells.

Stem cell science: sixty years in six moments

From a frog's egg in 1962 to the first approved treatments made from reprogrammed cells.

  1. 1962

    John Gurdon shows that the specialization of a cell is reversible: a mature cell's nucleus can be returned to an immature state.

    Source(opens in a new tab)

  2. 1987

    Mexico City

    An early graft for Parkinson's disease: surgeons report that the patient's own adrenal tissue, placed in the brain, eased the disease in two people. More careful studies could not repeat it: a lesson in waiting for proof.

    Source(opens in a new tab)

  3. 2006

    Shinya Yamanaka reprograms mature mouse cells into stem cells by adding a few genes: the first iPS cells. In 2012 he and Gurdon share the Nobel Prize.

    Source(opens in a new tab)

  4. 2014

    A RIKEN-led team carries out the first transplant into a patient of retinal cells made from iPS cells.

    Source(opens in a new tab)

  5. 2026

    March: Japan approves the first products made from iPS cells, for severe heart failure and Parkinson's disease.

    Source(opens in a new tab)

  6. 2026

    September: the first patient is treated with an approved iPS cell product, in Osaka.

    Source(opens in a new tab)

Spotted an error, or a newer result?

Research moves quickly. Write to us and we will check it against the source and update this page. concierge@regeneratemx.org

Summaries are written by RegenerateMX from the sources linked on each story; the sources are the authority. Nothing on this page is medical advice.

RegenerateMX

Physician-led regenerative wellness in Cancún, coordinated end to end by your concierge, with care teams from our COFEPRIS-authorized León clinical partner.

Contact

Book Your Consultation
Logo of COFEPRIS, the health regulator of Mexico

The COFEPRIS authorization belongs to our clinical partner in León, Guanajuato. RegenerateMX is a medical concierge, not a clinic, and is not accredited, certified or endorsed by COFEPRIS.

© 2026 RegenerateMX. Experiences in Cancún, Mexico, delivered by board-certified and experienced physicians from our COFEPRIS-authorized clinical partner in León, Guanajuato. Every patient is different and individual outcomes vary.

Privacy PolicyTerms of Service

Regulatory notice. RegenerateMX is a medical travel concierge. Treatments take place in Cancún, Mexico, and are provided by physicians from our COFEPRIS-authorized clinical partner under Mexican health regulations. The cellular therapies described on this site are not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the FDA has not reviewed them for safety, effectiveness or quality.

Every treatment requires a medical evaluation, and the treating physician decides whether a therapy is appropriate for you. No treatment, eligibility or result is guaranteed, results vary from person to person, and nothing on this site is medical advice or a claim that any therapy will treat, cure or prevent a disease. Availability depends on clinical appropriateness and on the rules that apply where care is given. Care received outside your home country may not carry the same regulatory protections or legal remedies.

Supplements in our shop: these statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration, and these products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. They are not medicines; their use is the responsibility of whoever recommends them and whoever takes them. Full details and restrictions: Terms of Service.