insulin producing cells from the skin of diabetic patients
Like all the results in basic research, the data shown by a new study should be taken cautiously by those who most want a cure for diabetes, the patients themselves.However, prudence does not tarnish an achievement that can open the door to a better knowledge of this disease and even the development of therapies from the skin of each patient.
A year ago, a researcher, George Daley, managed to transform fribroblasts (skin cells) of diabetic patients into pluripotential cells.However, the study published today by the journal 'Proccedings of the National Academy of Sciences' (PNAS), takes another step by ensuring that these pluripotential cells (IPS) give rise to others similar to beta cells, which they produce inThe insulin pancreas.
The good news comes from the hand of Douglas Melton, one of the greatest representatives of cell therapy research, which is committed to unraveling the skein of type 1 diabetes, a disease suffered by their two children, Emma and Sam.And it seems that the thread is letting go.
The melton team, from the Department of stem cells and regenerative biology, of Harvard University, in Cambridge (USA), took a biopsy of the skin of two people with type 1 diabetes, 11 and 27 years of course respectively.The fibroblasts obtained from these samples were inserted, by retrovirus, three reprogramming factors: OCT4, Sox2 and KLF4 and it was avoided using the C-MYC, with the greatest carcinogenic potential.
Once cultivated, skin cells were rescheduled to others similar to embryonic, IPS.These were applied a protocol to differentiate them in different tissues, and finally in other cells such as the Beta of the pancreas.
Finally, the researchers found that these cells were active compared to different glucose levels.Faced with a greater concentration of glucose, the created beta cells released more peptide C (substance that occurs when beta cells process proinsulin) than when they were exposed to a lower level of glucose.
Study model
One of the limitations that scientists have when finding a cure for diabetes is the lack of a good study model.The beginning of the disease occurs before symptoms may appear in patients, so they do not serve to analyze how this alteration begins.The mouse is the animal that is used for research, however, all results cannot be transferred to the human organism.Hence, the created cells are valued so positively, since they can help understand the root of the causes generated by the pathology.
"These cells offer a starting material to have a disease model and to test different differentiation protocols," the authors point out.However, these researchers expose the limitations of these results to be able to apply them in humans.On the one hand, the efficiency of this technique is low so you will have to continue working to improve the process.In addition, at the moment IPS cells cannot be injected into people because they are not safe.
In spite of the limitations, the authors are positive when considering that this achievement will allow a good model of study of the disease and these cells can also be used to verify in them how different molecules work that in the future can serve to develop new drugs.
