Stem Cells Produced in the Crypts of the Small Intestines
Embryonic Gut Cells May Be Coaxed to Make Insulin for People With Type 1 Diabetes – Insulin is an alkaline buffer which chelates to metabolic and dietary acids such as glucose, sucrose, fructose, maltose, uric acid and lactic acid, just to name a few.
By Mary Elizabeth Dallas Monday, June 30, 2014
The team from Columbia University Medical Center in New York City said their findings hold promise for the development of a new treatment for type 1 diabetes that does not involve stem cells.
MONDAY, June 30, 2014 (HealthDay News) — Scientists are hopeful that cells inside the human gut might someday be retrained to produce insulin, the metabolic hormone that’s lacking in people with type 1 diabetes.
For people with type 1 diabetes, their body’s natural insulin-producing cells, known as pancreatic beta cells, are destroyed by their immune system. For the past 20 years, scientists have been trying to help the body make new insulin-producing cells that replace those that are lost to the disease.
However, by simply turning off a particular gene, the Columbia scientists were able to convert cells in the human gut into cells that make insulin. They said the findings suggest that “reeducating” existing cells may be an easier way to replace the cells lost in type 1 diabetes than creating new cells using stem cell technology.
“By showing that human cells can respond in the same way as mouse cells, we have cleared a main hurdle and can now move forward to try to make this treatment a reality,” Accili said. For his part LeRoith called the study “exciting.”
“This study and others like it may form the basis of future development of insulin producing cells that could be used in ‘curing’ type 1 diabetes,” he said.
SOURCE: Derek LeRoith, M.D., professor of medicine, endocrinology, diabetes and bone disease, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York City; Columbia University Medical Center, news release, June 30, 2014
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