The prevalence of diabetes will rise from 2.8% of the total world population in 2000 to 4.4% in 2030. The two prevailing forms of diabetes, named Type 1 and Type 2 (T1D and T2D), are chronic and often lead to life-threatening complications. There is currently no cure for diabetes, due to the poorly understood complex multifactorial etiology (some forms are monogenic, but T1D and T2D are polygenic and multifactorial). Both T1D and T2D are characterized by the loss of insulin-producing islet b-cells: total or near total in T1D, due to an autoimmune destruction, or variable and partial in T2D.
In recent years, several observations have revealed an astonishing intrinsic plasticity in the pancreatic islets of Langerhans. In this mini-review we addressed the main advances towards new strategies for treating diabetes by exploiting the in vivo transdifferentiation potential of diverse pancreatic cell types.
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Regeneration of Pancreatic Insulin-Producing Cells By In Situ Adaptive Cell Conversion
Authors: Simona Chera and Pedro Herrera
Journal: Current Opinion in Genetics & Development (2016), pp. 1-10
DOI information: 10.1016/j.gde.2016.05.010