This review discusses the prospects for the treatment of insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. The use of insulin-producing cells of various origins is relevant and may in the future replace radical transplantation of the whole pancreas and transplantation of individual islets of Langerhans. The authors have paid attention to the peculiarities of obtaining stem cells by directed differentiation and proliferation of various fractions of stem cells, as well as to the prospects for their use in clinical practice. The regenerative features and possible complications of each pool of cells used are considered. Attention is paid to the phenomenon of plasticity which helps in transplantation and subsequent functioning. At the same time, general methods for isolating stem cells from niches containing the largest number of available progenitor cells, as well as the results of the introduction of insulin-producing cells, are considered.