New York, NY, August 6, 2009 — In findings that add to the prospects of regenerating insulin-producing cells in people with type 1 diabetes, researchers in Europe — co-funded by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation — have shown that insulin-producing beta cells can be derived from non-insulin-producing cells in the pancreas.
In results of a study published today in the journal Cell, the researchers, led by Patrick Collombat of the Max-Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Germany and Ahmed Mansouri of the University of Göttingen in Germany, in collaboration with researchers at the JDRF Center for Beta Cell Therapy in Diabetes in Brussels, discovered in mice that new insulin-producing beta cells can be generated from alpha cells in the islets of the pancreas by modifying the expression of a specific gene (Pax4) in alpha cells. (Alpha cells generate the hormone glucagon in response to low blood sugar to restore normal blood sugar levels.) They also discovered that the alpha cells that give rise to new beta cells originate from progenitor cells in the pancreas. The newly formed beta cells result in better glucose control and prolonged survival of younger mice with diabetes.
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