Northerner
Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
The only cell in the body that makes insulin -- the critical hormone that regulates blood sugar -- is the beta cell in the pancreas. That's a problem for diabetics, who either have dysfunctional beta cells or immune systems that kill off too many of them.
But researchers at the University of Pennsylvania are getting closer to figuring out how to transform highly abundant gut cells into insulin powerhouses.
In 2008, stem cell scientists in Boston found they could reprogram one type of pancreatic cell into a beta cell by forcing the expression of three specific genes. To see if any other types of cells could be reprogrammed, Ben Stanger, a physician-scientist at Penn, began by putting the three factors into a bunch of different tissues in mice.
http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/...ntists-reprogram-gut-cells-to-produce-insulin
But researchers at the University of Pennsylvania are getting closer to figuring out how to transform highly abundant gut cells into insulin powerhouses.
In 2008, stem cell scientists in Boston found they could reprogram one type of pancreatic cell into a beta cell by forcing the expression of three specific genes. To see if any other types of cells could be reprogrammed, Ben Stanger, a physician-scientist at Penn, began by putting the three factors into a bunch of different tissues in mice.
http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/...ntists-reprogram-gut-cells-to-produce-insulin