Although we can not say they are normal stem cells, this class of cells, which are found in the pancreas of adult mice, could be the answer to diabetes if equivalent cells were found in human. Hopes are up that these new discovered cells will be able to grow new insulin-secreting beta islet cells.“That is the far away dream, but the data we find in mice gives us the hope this kind of reasoning makes sense”
---Harry Heimberg.
(Picture: Injections of newly discovered mouse pancreatic cells (green) into an embryonic mouse pancreas engineered to function improperly restored its hormone-secreting ability. --- Courtesy of Harry Heimberg and Xiaobo Xu)
The progenitors, the newly found cells, do not repeatedly reproduce in the lab, however they are capable of differentiating into cell types of the islets, a certain pancreatic structure that includes beta cells and cells that secrete hormones such as glucagon and somatostatin. Heimberg and his co-workers discovered the progenitors by preventing digestive enzymes getting out of the pancreas and with that causing a destructive backup. The injured pancreas soon contained double the normal amount of beta cells. The team then looked for cells producing neurogenin 3 (the first gene which only is active in pancreatic islets during embryonic development). They found about 5’000 such cells.
The team found that after adding the isolated progenitors to a embryonic pancreatic tissue incapable of secreting insulin the extracted tissue started to produce insulin, glucagon and other hormones again. This means the progenitors are capable of differentiating into all the islet cell types.
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=elusive-pancreas-healing
