Diabetes News
NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y, January 10, 2006,.(Business Wire) - Cultured embryonic stem cells induced to form insulin-producing Islet-like cell clusters--intended to replace the insulin production lost in diabetes--do not produce detectable amounts of new insulin, according to a report in the December 2005 (Volume 7, Number 4) issue of Cloning and Stem Cells, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. The paper is available free online at www.liebertpub.com/clo.
Adding to the body of diabetes research aimed at developing a method to generate and transplant embryonic stem cells (ESCs) into patients with diabetes to replace pancreatic Islet cell function and insulin production, authors HJ Paek, Ph.D., and colleagues from Brown University (Providence, RI) reported on the results of studies that identified the origin of insulin secreted by Islet-like cell clusters (ILCCs) that were derived from ESCs. The researchers added human and bovine insulin to the mouse stem cells growing in culture to stimulate their differentiation into Islet-like cells. They then demonstrated that the insulin being secreted by the ILCCs was, in fact, not of mouse origin and not being made by the ILCCs, but was instead largely bovine or human insulin that the cells had taken up from the culture medium.
Depending on the culture technique used in these studies, the authors found that some of the mouse ILCCs did demonstrate the capacity to produce low levels of mouse insulin, offering hope that these techniques could be further developed and improved to increase insulin yield and make Islet cell transplantation a realistic treatment strategy in the future.
"These results provide clarification of a very important issue," says Ian Wilmut, Ph.D., Editor-In-Chief of Cloning and Stem Cells and Chair of Reproductive Science, University of Edinburgh. Islet-like cell clusters derived by the present procedures do not produce significant quantities of insulin. This result clarifies the challenge that remains."
Cloning and Stem Cells is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published quarterly in print and online that focuses on understanding developmental plasticity and defining the molecular mechanisms that regulate differentiation or dedifferentiation of nuclei and cells. Tables of contents and a free sample issue may be viewed online at www.liebertpub.com/clo.
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Human Gene Therapy, Stem Cells and Development, and Tissue Engineering. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 60 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available at www.liebertpub.com.