Advance in human pancreas stem cells

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

New research shows that stem cells in the pancreas can be made into insulin-producing cells.
In diabetes, the cells producing the hormone insulin in the pancreas are either dysfunctional or absent. These so-called beta cells normally reside in the pancreatic islets, which make up just two per cent of the pancreas. There has been some success in transplanting islets, as a treatment for diabetes, but the procedure is still somewhat experimental.

That is why there is interest in possibly using beta cells themselves as therapy. A team at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research in the US now reveals some new experiments that take a step further towards this possibility. They isolated a type of cell from the pancreas called non-endocrine pancreatic epithelial cells (NEPECS) which do not produce insulin. Mixing them with various growth factors and developing pancreatic cells, after genetic labeling, induced in them the ability to make insulin. This suggests that this cell population is, or contains, a type of stem cell that can be converted into a beta cell. More research is needed, but the NEPECS may be capable of forming the basis of a new type of cell therapy for diabetes.

Source
Nature Medicine 1st March 2006

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