Researchers have produced insulin-secreting cells from stem cells derived from the skin of patients with type 1 diabetes. The cells (blue), made from stem cells, can secrete insulin (green) in response to glucose. Credit: MILLMAN LABORATORY
Signaling a potential new approach to treating diabetes, researchers have produced insulin-secreting cells from stem cells derived from patients with type1 diabetes. The new discovery suggests a personalized treatment approach to diabetes may be on the horizon – one that relies on the patients’ own stem cells to manufacture new cells that make insulin. The new cells could produce insulin when they encountered sugar. The scientists tested the cells in culture and in mice, and in both cases found the cells secreted insulin in response to glucose.
“In theory, if we could replace the damaged cells in these individuals with new pancreatic beta cells – whose primary function is to store and release insulin to control blood glucose – patients with type 1 diabetes wouldn’t need insulin shots anymore,” said Assistant Prof. Jeffrey R. Millman, PhD. “The cells we’ve manufactured sense the presence of glucose and secrete insulin in response. And beta cells do a much better job controlling blood sugar than diabetic patients can.”
In these new experiments, the beta cells came from tissue taken from the skin of diabetes patients. Millman said “Some scientists thought that because the tissue would be coming from diabetes patients, there might be defects to prevent us from helping the stem cells differentiate into beta cells. It turns out that’s not the case.” More research is needed to make sure that the beta cells made from patient-derived stem cells don’t cause tumors to develop – a problem in some stem cell research – but there has been no evidence of tumors in the mouse studies, even up to a year after the cells were implanted.
He said the stem cell-derived beta cells could be ready for human research in 3 – 5 years. At that time, Millman expects the cells would be implanted under the skin of diabetes patients in a minimally invasive surgical procedure that would allow the beta cells access to a patient’s blood supply. “What we’re envisioning is an outpatient procedure in which some sort of device filled with the cells would be placed just beneath the skin,” he said.
The idea of replacing beta cells isn’t new. More than two decades ago, Washington University researchers Paul E. Lacy, MD, PhD, now deceased, and David W. Scharp, MD, began transplanting such cells into patients with type 1 diabetes. Still today, patients in several clinical trials have been given beta cell transplants with some success. However, those cells come from pancreas tissue provided by organ donors. As with all types of organ donation, the need for islet beta cells for people with type 1 diabetes greatly exceeds their availability.
It’s likely the technique also would work in patients with other forms of the disease – including type2 diabetes, neonatal diabetes and Wolfram syndrome. Then it would be possible to test the effects of diabetes drugs on the beta cells of patients with various forms of the disease. https://medicine.wustl.edu/news/stem-cells-diabetic-patients-coaxed-develop-insulin-secreting-cells/
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