For years researchers have been searching for a way to treat
diabetics by reactivating their insulin-producing beta cells, with limited
success. The "reprogramming" of related alpha cells into beta cells
may one day offer a novel and complementary approach for treating type 2
diabetes. Treating human and mouse cells with compounds that modify cell
nuclear material called chromatin induced the expression of beta cell genes in
alpha cells, according to a new study that appears online in the Journal of
Clinical Investigation.
“This would be a win-win situation for diabetics — they
would have more insulin-producing beta cells and there would be fewer
glucagon-producing alpha cells,” says lead author Klaus H. Kaestner, Ph.D.,
professor of Genetics and member of the Institute of Diabetes, Obesity and
Metabolism, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. Type 2
diabetics not only lack insulin, but they also produce too much glucagon.