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Stem cells modified to treat diabetes
Source: Agencies |
December 14, 2010, Tuesday
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SCIENTISTS have demonstrated in two experiments that stem cells can be transformed into the pancreatic cells needed to treat diabetes and into complex layers of intestinal tissue.
In one experiment, a team turned immature sperm cells into pancreatic tissue, while another team turned embryonic stem cells into complex layers of intestinal tissue.
Both studies show new ways to use stem cells, which are the body's master cells and which can come from a variety of sources.
A team at Georgetown University in America worked with spermatogonial stem cells, master cells that give rise to sperm in men.
Ian Gallicano and colleagues used germ-derived pluripotent stem cells, which are made from the spermatogonial stem cells. They nurtured these cells in the lab with compounds designed to make these cells start acting like pancreatic beta cells, which produce insulin.
When transplanted into diabetic mice, these cells produced insulin, acting like the pancreatic beta cells that the body mistakenly destroys in type-1 diabetes, Gallicano's team told a meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology in Philadelphia.
Currently, children and young adults diagnosed with type-1 diabetes must take insulin for life.
A few may be treated with the Edmonton Protocol, in which the missing pancreatic cells are transplanted from cadavers. But there is a shortage of these cells and the patients may suffer from graft-versus-host disease if the cells are not a good match.
Gallicano said men's own cells could be used as a source of their transplants, and he said it may work for women too. "While these cells come from the human testis, the work here is not necessarily male-centric," they wrote. "These fundamental aspects could easily be applied to the female, counterpart cells."
In one experiment, a team turned immature sperm cells into pancreatic tissue, while another team turned embryonic stem cells into complex layers of intestinal tissue.
Both studies show new ways to use stem cells, which are the body's master cells and which can come from a variety of sources.
A team at Georgetown University in America worked with spermatogonial stem cells, master cells that give rise to sperm in men.
Ian Gallicano and colleagues used germ-derived pluripotent stem cells, which are made from the spermatogonial stem cells. They nurtured these cells in the lab with compounds designed to make these cells start acting like pancreatic beta cells, which produce insulin.
When transplanted into diabetic mice, these cells produced insulin, acting like the pancreatic beta cells that the body mistakenly destroys in type-1 diabetes, Gallicano's team told a meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology in Philadelphia.
Currently, children and young adults diagnosed with type-1 diabetes must take insulin for life.
A few may be treated with the Edmonton Protocol, in which the missing pancreatic cells are transplanted from cadavers. But there is a shortage of these cells and the patients may suffer from graft-versus-host disease if the cells are not a good match.
Gallicano said men's own cells could be used as a source of their transplants, and he said it may work for women too. "While these cells come from the human testis, the work here is not necessarily male-centric," they wrote. "These fundamental aspects could easily be applied to the female, counterpart cells."
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