Researchers
at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified a way
to trigger reproduction in the laboratory of clusters of human cells that make
insulin, potentially removing a significant obstacle to transplanting the cells
as a treatment for patients with type 1 diabetes.
Efforts to
make this treatment possible have been limited by a dearth of insulin-producing
beta cells that can be removed from donors after death, and by the stubborn
refusal of human beta cells to proliferate in the laboratory after harvesting.
“Until now,
there didn’t seem to be a way to reliably make the limited supply of human beta
cells proliferate in the laboratory and remain functional,” said Michael
McDaniel, PhD, professor of pathology and immunology. “We have not only found a
technique to make the cells willing to multiply, we’ve done it in a way that
preserves their ability to make insulin.”
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