For the first time, researchers have succeeded in transforming human stem cells into mature insulin-producing cells. Eventually, this could cure people with type 1 diabetes.
This could change the lives of millions of people with type 1 diabetes around the world. For the first time, American researchers have succeeded in transforming human stem cells into mature insulin-producing cells in the laboratory, according to a study published in the journal Nature Cell Biology.
This success is the culmination of several years of work. “The cells we were producing were stuck at an immature stage where they couldn’t adequately respond to blood glucose and secrete insulin properly,” notes Matthias Hebrok, of the Diabetes Research Center in San Francisco. , author of the study. Then he and his team realized that the key to success lay in an overlooked aspect of beta cell development, the physical process by which cells separate from the rest of the pancreas and form what are called islets of Langerhans.
The researchers then reproduced this process in the laboratory by artificially separating stem cells from the pancreas and reforming them into clusters of islets. As a result, the beta cells and the others (delta and alpha) began to respond to glucose like mature insulin-producing cells.
Successfully tested on mice
The researchers then transplanted these “islets” into healthy mice and found that they functioned for several days, producing insulin to respond to blood sugar levels in much the same way as the animals’ natural islets.
“We can now generate insulin-generating cells that look and behave like the pancreatic cells that you and I have in our bodies. This is a major step towards our goal of creating cells that could be transplanted into patients with diabetes,” says Matthias Hebrok.
Complications from type 1 diabetes can be life-threatening
Type 1 diabetes represents 10% of diabetes cases worldwide and in France. It is an autoimmune disease most often manifesting in childhood and destroying insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. Without insulin to regulate blood glucose levels, sugar spikes can seriously damage organs, even leading to death. While this condition can be treated with regular insulin shots, some people still experience acute or chronic complications related to poor blood sugar control.
These include retinopathy, kidney failure, neuropathy, coronary artery disease (heart artery disease) and obliterating arteriopathy of the lower limbs (lower limb artery disease). These complications can endanger the patient’s life. This is why, today, diabetics threatened with death can receive a pancreas transplant (most often accompanied by a kidney transplant).
According to the Hepato-billary center Paul Rousse, since the first pancreas transplant in 1996, the operation is going better and better. Today, patient survival at 3, 5 and 10 years is 90%, 87% and 70% respectively. On average, 80 transplants take place each year in France.
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