Tuesday, July 06, 2021

Research advances one step closer to stem cell therapy for type 1 diabetes

Good news!

"... In a study published on June 7, 2021, in the journal Nature Communications, the investigators reported that they have developed a new way to create beta cells that is much more efficient than previous methods. Additionally, when these beta cells were tested in a mouse model of type 1 diabetes, the animals’ blood sugar was brought under control within about two weeks. ...
Producing beta cells from hPSCs in the lab is not new, but in the past the yields of these precious cells have been low. With existing methods, only about 10 to 40 percent of cells become beta cells. By comparison, techniques used to create nerve cells from hPSCs have yields of about 80 percent. Another issue is that if undifferentiated cells are left in the mix, they could eventually turn into another kind cell that would be unwanted. ...
To address the problem, the researchers took a stepwise approach to create beta cells. They identified several chemicals that are important for inducing hPSCs to become more specialized cells. They ultimately identified several cocktails of chemicals that resulted in beta cell yields of up to 80 percent. ..."

"... To address these issues, we first devised a strategy to efficiently cluster hPSC-derived pancreatic progenitors into 3D structures. Through a systematic study, we discovered 10 chemicals that not only retain the pancreatic progenitors in 3D clusters but also enhance their potentiality towards NKX6.1+/INS+ β cells. We further systematically screened signaling pathway modulators in the three steps from pancreatic progenitors toward β cells. The implementation of all these strategies and chemical combinations resulted in generating β cells from different sources of hPSCs with high efficiency. ..."

Research advances one step closer to stem cell therapy for type 1 diabetes - Salk Institute for Biological Studies Salk research shows how to optimize the production of insulin-producing cells from stem cells

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