Education

Hope for Juvenile Diabetes Patients

Posted on August 30, 2008. Filed under: Education, Science & Technology | Tags: beta cells, Diabetes, direct reprogramming, endocrine, exocrine, insulin, Juvenile, Juvenile Diabetes, Melton, News, pancreas, pancreatic, Science, Stem Cells, Type –I Diabetes |

Researchers have transformed ordinary cells into insulin producing cells in a living mouse by the technique called direct reprogramming, in which three genes are carried by the virus to transform the exocrine cells of the pancreas into beta cells which produce insulin. This nullifies the need of stem cells in research.

In the case of Juvenile diabetes (Type –I Diabetes) the pancreatic beta cells are destroyed by the body’s own immune system leading to lower levels of insulin and thus body cannot burn food to energy.

“It was easier than one might have thought,” Melton said. He also added “These cells are very stable and live for the life of the mouse.” Reporting in Nature, Melton and his team said they did it in live mice, not in lab dishes. They worked with diabetic mice that do not have insulin producing cells needed by the pancreas to help the body turn food into energy