Stem cells in treatment of diabetes

Stem cells are cells that are characterized by the ability to renew themselves through mitotic cell division and also to differentiate into a diverse range of specialized cell types. In other words these are juvenile cells that can grow into any adult type. It is a long known fact that these stem cells can convert to any adult cell types based on the culture media and growth conditions.


Type 1 Diabetes is a condition seen mainly in children and young adults mostly, but can also occur in middle aged. In this condition the body mounts an auto immune response i.e. attacks its own cells in pancreas. As these cells are responsible for the secretion of insulin, a decrease in these cells leads to insulin deficiency and diabetes.

Thus these patients need to take insulin throughout their lives.another treatment option that is available is the Edmonton protocol (transfer of pancreatic cells from cadavers). This is a costly procedure and has its own limitations of rejection and scarcity of cells available for transplant.

An answer to this problem is the transplantation of pancreatic cells that are grown from the stem cells. A team at Georgetown University in Washington worked with spermatogonial stem cells (the master cells that give rise to sperms in men).

Ian Gallicano and colleagues at the Georgetown university used germ cell-derived pluripotent stem cells, which are made from the spermatogonial stem cells. They grew these cells in appropriate culture media with compounds designed to make these cells start acting like pancreatic beta cells, which produce insulin.

When transplanted into diabetic mice, these cells produced insulin, acting like the normal pancreatic beta cells.
Gallicano speaking at a meeting of American Society for cell biology said men's own cells could be used as a source of their transplants, and he said perhaps the approach may work in women too. "While these cells come from the human testis, the work here is not necessarily male-centric," they wrote. "These fundamental aspects could easily be applied to the female counterpart, oocytes." 

Something to cheer up for the little kids who need to have injections everyday.