From human skin cells, researchers at the University of Iowa (IU), in the United States, they have created human insulin producing cells that respond to glucose and lead to correct levels of blood sugar in blood in blooddiabetic mice.The findings could represent a first step towards the development of specific cell replacement therapy for patients with type 1 diabetes.
In the new study, published on Wednesday in the magazine 'Plos One', the IU team led by Nicholas Zavazava, professor of internal medicine of IU, rescheduled human skin cells to create induced pluripotent stem cells (IPS), which were then thenprompted to form insulin producing cells.When these cells were transplanted into diabetic mice, the cells secreted insulin and reduced the blood sugar levels of mice to normal or almost normal levels.
Although cells were not as effective as pancreatic cells in the control of blood sugar levels, Zavazava says that the results are a "first encouraging step" towards the objective of generating effective insulin producing cells that can be potentially usedto cure type 1 diabetes. "This raises the possibility that we could treat patients with diabetes with their own cells-Zavazava's Damn-. That would be a great advance, which will accelerate the treatment of diabetes."
The Zavazava team is among several groups that pursue the objective of creating an alternative source of insulin -producing pancreatic cells that can be transplanted in patients with type 1 diabetes. However, the IU study is the first to use human IPS cells to createInsulin producing cells.
In type 1 diabetes, a person's immune system attacks and destroys the beta cells of the pancreas that produce insulin.Although it is possible to treat diabetes 1 with pancreas transplants of deceased donors, the demand for transplants far exceeds the availability of donated organs.
The creation of these cells from the patient's own cells would not only eliminate the need to wait for a donor pancreas but also that patients could receive transplants without taking immunosuppressive medications.The use of IPS cells instead of embryonic stem cells as a starting point also avoids the ethical problems that some people have with the use of embryonic stem cells.
In the mouse study, insulin producing cells were placed under the renal capsule, a layer of thin membrane that surrounds the kidney, where they developed in a structure like organ with their own blood supply.This new "insulin" organ organs gradually corrects blood sugar levels in diabetic mice for a period of several months.In addition, then the mice became Normaglucémica because their glucose levels remained constant.
Through the development of cells in a gradual way, the IU equipment was able to collect and use only those cells that would be developed in pancreatic cells.This meant that they were able to eliminate very immature (not differentiated) cells that could form tumors, so none of the mice developed transplanted cell tumors.