For the first time, researchers have coaxed stem cells to grow into the kinds of cells that churn out insulin, the hormone that helps the body use sugar. While doctors have reported promising results in transplanting pancreatic cells from cadavers to a few patients, creating an unlimited supply of cells that can produce insulin would revolutionize how diabetics are treated.
Stem cells are the master cells of the body, capable of turning into nearly any kind of body tissue.
Using the sort of embryonic mouse stem cells they suspected would turn into pancreatic cells, McKay and his colleagues bathed the cells in a solution that encouraged growth. The result was clumps of islet cells. When glucose, or blood sugar, was added to the Petri dish, the cells began to produce insulin. The experiment and the results were fascinating, McKay says. We've already used this technique to produce the types of cells that Parkinson's patients need, and we adapted the method to make the islets.