Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in
St. Louis have identified a way to trigger reproduction in the laboratory of
clusters of human cells that make insulin, potentially removing a significant
obstacle to transplanting the cells as a treatment for patients with type 1
diabetes.
Efforts to make this treatment possible have been limited by
a dearth of insulin-producing beta cells that can be removed from donors after
death, and by the stubborn refusal of human beta cells to proliferate in the
laboratory after harvesting.