What is it about?
Diabetes is due to a lack of the hormone called insulin that can lower blood glucose. Here we present how new cells that produce insulin can be formed in mice. They are formed from dormant cells upon stimulation by signals circulating in the blood of these mice in situations where more insulin is required.
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Why is it important?
We propose a model of mice that display the formation of new cells producing insulin. Since diabetes originates from a lack of insulin, our results are the proof of concept that new insulin-producing cells can be formed upon the stimulation of signals present in the blood. Such signals represent exciting new therapeutic agents that could be used to treat diabetes.
Perspectives
We hope that the identification of the signals that can stimulate the production of more insulin will help develop new therapeutic drugs to treat diabetes. Moreover, our results propose that regenerative medicine is possible but requires to characterize dormant cells present in each organ and the signals required to wake up these cells and make them become fonctional cells.
Bertrand Blondeau
Sorbonne Université
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Adaptive β-Cell Neogenesis in the Adult Mouse in Response to Glucocorticoid-Induced Insulin Resistance, Diabetes, October 2018, American Diabetes Association,
DOI: 10.2337/db17-1314.
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