Use of in vitro-generated, stem cell-derived islets to cure type 1 diabetes: how close are we?

A B Peck1, J G Cornelius, M Chaudhari

  • 1Department of Pathology, Immunology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville, Florida 32610, USA. peck@pathology.ufl.edu

Recent successes in treating type 1 diabetic patients with islet transplantation portends a future need for an increase in available islets. Ductal structures of the adult pancreas contain multipotent stem cells that, under the proper in vitro conditions, can both self-renew and differentiate into functional islets of Langerhans. In vitro-generated islets exhibit temporal changes in mRNA transcripts for islet-associated markers as well as regulated insulin responses following glucose challenge. When implanted into diabetic mice, in vitro-generated islets induce neovascularization and reverse insulin-dependent diabetes. The possibility of growing functional endocrine pancreas from stem cells provides new opportunities to produce large numbers of islets, even autologous islets, for use as implants.

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