Stem Cells Could Treat Diabetes If Coaxed Onto That Path
Related News: Stem Cells and DiabetesAs many of you already know, diabetes is one of the most targetted uses for stem cell research. Fortunately, many corporate and university level research teams are making some progress in getting stem cells to differentiate into pacreatic cells or beta cells, replacing the faulty cells that are no longer producing insulin.
"We think that ultimately the way to cure people with diabetes, or at least many patients with diabetes, is to replace those cells," said Michael German of the University of California-San Francisco's Diabetes Center.
Currently clinics worldwide have been working on some forms of treatment, including the University of California - San Francisco, where they transplant beta cells from cadavers into diabetes patients.
"The problem is, at present we don't have nearly enough cells to do this," German said.
There are more than 150 million people with diabetes and more than a half million new cases each year in the United States alone. There are simply not enough pancreases donated yearly.
"If we had an unlimited supply of these cells, we could treat everybody with diabetes," German said.
German's goal is to find a way to have stem cells help generate that supply.
In normal human development, some stem cells eventually become beta cells. The cells face a series of decisions that lead them down the path to becoming insulin-producing cells or another cell type. To become a beta cell, they must first decide to become part of the gastrointestinal tract, and eventually part of the pancreas, and then part of the pancreas area that contains specialized cells, including beta cells. Finally they must decide to become a beta cell.
German is working on how to coax embryonic stem cells along this path.
"The idea is that if we knew the genes and the signaling pathways that control each of these decisions that we could in fact take embryonic stem cells and drive them specifically to make these decisions and end up as beta cells."
Posted on July 21, 2005 04:54 PM