Modified Liver Cells Keep Diabetes under Control

Research by Endocrine Institute in Israel provides the tantalizing possibility of curing diabetes by transplanting the patient’s own cells. This will mean treatment without immunosuppression therapy and hence without complications associated with islet transplantation (Edmonton protocol etc.).

Sarah Ferber of the Endocrine Institute in Israel and her colleagues modified adult human liver cells (AHL) to express the pancreatic and duodenal homeobox gene 1 (PDX-1). A quarter of the AHL cells transformed in this manner produced insulin, the researchers report in a paper published online this week by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The team then transplanted the treated cells into diabetic mice and determined that the insulin-producing AHL cells store the hormone in granules in much the same way that regular beta-cells in the pancreas do. (In the image of AHL cells above, insulin is shown in red.) Over time, insulin was secreted and subsequently controlled the glucose levels in the animals’ bloodstream. Treated diabetic mice reacted to an influx of sugar in the same manner as healthy control animals, suggesting the PDX-1-treated liver cells can stand in for of beta-cells.

Source