Transforming skin cells into a diabetes cure

For diabetes sufferers, the pain and inconvenience of regular insulin shots and blood sugar measurements may soon be a thing of the past. Norwegian researchers are one step closer to curing diabetes by making insulin-producing cells from skin cells.

Researchers at the University of Bergen have used stem cell techniques to transform skin puncture cells from diabetes patients into insulin-producing cells. The researchers’ aim is to transplant these cells under the skin of people with diabetes.

”This study is a step towards discovering how ‘stand-in’ cells can secrete insulin in the body,” said Professor Helge Ræder, leader of the stem cell node at the K.G. Jebsen Centre for Diabetes Research, University of Bergen.

In the long run, the researchers’ goal is to replace insulin shots and blood sugar measurements with insulin-secreting cells capable of automatically secreting insulin in response to the blood sugar level. This can become possible by implanting a capsule with tailor-made cells in each diabetes patient.

”Our study is a step further in the spare part or regenerative medicine, where a lot may go wrong but where a successful approach may cure diabetes,” Ræder said.

Today, there is an ongoing race between scientists trying to restore insulin secretion within the human body in diabetes patients by artificially created insulin-producing cells.

“There is a big market out there for those who can commercialise successful treatment with this approach. Today 400 million people have diabetes worldwide,” Professor Helge Ræder said.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/Dmitry Lobanov