Turning blood into beta cells - it's time for down-to-earth research

The recent findings in the field of blood or bone-marrow transdifferentiation into insulin-producing beta cells are summarized. Possible future goals in this exciting area of research are described.

A number of recent studies examined the differentiation potential of bone marrow, peripheral blood, spleen or cord blood towards pancreatic beta cells, both in vivo and in vitro.

The available in-vivo studies do not prove a physiological role of blood or bone marrow in the normal turnover, regeneration or repair of pancreatic islets. They rather argue against that notion. The in-vitro derivation of beta-like cells from blood or bone marrow has been reported by several groups. Nevertheless, there is still room for scepticism as robust and readily reproducible differentiation protocols are lacking and exhaustive analyses of bone marrow-derived beta-like cells have yet to be completed.