Low insulin levels cause blood glucose levels to remain high, which in the long term can cause damage to organs such as the kidneys, eyes, and cardiovascular system.
Diabetics need continuous monitoring of their blood sugar levels for life, along with insulin injections to keep their blood sugar levels stable within healthy ranges.
One potential new treatment option for these patients is to replace damaged or non-functioning beta cells, either by cell transplantation or by generating new beta cells from cells already present in the body.
This latter approach is what was followed by the team of Xiaofeng Huang from Weill Cornell Medical College in the United States and Cheng Xia from Peking University in China, who previously discovered the possibility of converting cells in the mouse stomach into pancreatic beta cells through genetic engineering.
In the research published in the journal Stem Cell Reports, the researchers tested whether the same result could be achieved with the human stomach inside the body.
To test this, the researchers began by creating human intestinal organelles (microscopic structures that mimic aspects of normal stomach function), and then genetically modified these organelles so that they could be converted into pancreatic beta cells when a genetic switch was turned on.
Subsequently, the gastric organelles were implanted into the abdominal region of mice, where they survived and matured for up to six months, forming connections with surrounding tissues and the bloodstream. Upon activation of the genetic switch, the human gastric cells transformed into insulin-producing cells within the mice, exhibiting characteristics—in terms of gene and protein expression—that closely resembled pancreatic beta cells.
The encouraging thing is that when these experiments were carried out on diabetic mice, the insulin secreted by the transformed human cells helped to control blood sugar levels and improve the condition of the diabetic.
Scientists hope to apply a similar approach to converting cells from the patient's own stomach into insulin-producing cells directly within the body. However, it is important to note that further research is needed.
