A New Source of Insulin-Producing Cells?

Filed in archive Research , Treatment on November 25, 2008

Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, David Marchal

Contrary to previous findings, researchers at at the Joslin Diabetes Center have shown that insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells can form after birth or after injury from progenitor cells within the pancreas that were not beta cells.

According to Susan Bonner-Weir, Ph.D., the study's lead researcher and a Senior Investigator in the Section on Islet Transplantation and Cell Biology at Joslin and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School:

"This means that there is a population of pancreatic cells that can be stimulated, either within the body or outside the body, to become new beta cells, the cells that are lacking in diabetes."

The study findings - published online the week of November 24 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Early Edition - identifies the source of the progenitor cells as being pancreatic duct cells.

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