The findings from the research team is to published in the March 1 edition of Nature Medicine.

Fred Levine, the adjunct professor at Burnham stated "We hypothesized that the inductive factors in developing pancreatic cells might work on cells in the adult pancreas and that turned out to be true."

"We have shown, in as rigorous a manner as possible, proof-of-concept for the existence of progenitor stem insulin-producing cells within the adult human pancreas. Our proven ability to transform these progenitor stem cells into insulin-producing cells greatly expands the possibility that beta cell regeneration therapies can be developed for the treatment of diabetes," he said.

As we know, Type 1 and Type 2 forms of diabetes are generally caused by the loss of insulin-producing cells, also known as beta cells.

In this study, researchers developed adult human pancreatic cells which were incapable of producing insulin. These cells they called "non-endocrine pancreatic epithelial cells", or NEPECS. They then combined in a culture the endocrine progenitor cells that produced insulin, and reimplanted them back into mice to determine if new insulin was produced.

The NEPECS then became insulin-producing beta cells.

For a clearer picture .. read at UPI - Adult pancreas stem cells can make insulin