Treatment With Human Umbilical Cord Mesenchymal Stem Cells for Refractory Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy

As Diabetes is becoming a health problem of global concern rapidly, DPN, one of the common chronic complications in Diabetes is also getting more and more attention. The result of a survey of 5 regions in Southeast Asia showed that 39-72% of patients with DPN had severe or very severe impact on their quality of life. For the treatment of DPN, conventional drug therapy can almost only target a single pathogenesis and cannot treat it fundamentally. Therefore, new safe and effective treatment options for DPN are particularly important. Both here and abroad, large number of experimental studies have shown that Bone Marrow or Umbilical Cord Mesenchymal Stem Cells have a significant therapeutic effect on diabetic peripheral neuropathy. In 2012, the Department of Endocrinology of Wuhan Central Hospital took the lead in conducting a clinical study of Autologous Bone Marrow Stem Cells in the treatment of DPN in China. The results of the study showed that the nerve conduction velocity of the lower extremities in most patients was improved within 3 months after treatment compared with before treatment. No serious adverse events occurred during the period. Based on this research of our own. The clinical trial is to evaluate the safety and efficacy of HUC-MSCs in the treatment of refractory diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) by formulating standard operating procedures (SOP) and quality standards (QS) to explore the possible mechanism of HUC-MSCs in the treatment of DPN. The investigators will do a Single center, randomization, open trial, controlled clinical trials design to assess treatment with the MSCs compared with the control group. 42 patients with DPN will be recruited in China. 21 patients receive i. m. HUC-MSCs both lower extremities (5 × 10\^6 cells/mL, 1 mL per injection, each injection point is 2 cm apart ,1.0-1.5 cm deep, total amount of injection is estimated based on the surface area of the patient's lower limbs). 21 patients in the control group received i.v. Lipoic Acid Injection (600 mg/d for 15 consecutive days). Both efficacy and Adverse Event (AE) during the 96 weeks follow up.