Sperm-forming stem cells in the testes can be converted to insulin-producing cells that could replace diseased ones in the pancreas, researchers from Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, D.C., reported December 12 at the annual meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology. The new technique is edging closer to producing the amount of insulin needed to cure diabetes in humans.
Ian Gallicano, a developmental biologist at Georgetown, and his colleagues isolated sperm-producing stem cells from the testes of organ donors. These cells could easily revert to an embryonic state, capable of making nearly any cell in the body.
The Georgetown researchers treated the cells with chemicals to coax them into mimicking beta-islet cells from the pancreas, the same kind of cells that are compromised in diabetes.
Reprogrammed sperm-producing cells cured diabetes in mice for about a week before their insulin levels dropped again. “If you’re a mouse and you have diabetes, you’re in good shape these days,” Gallicano says.
Ali Mokdad stands in the heart of Beirut. Cars and trucks and motorcycles rumble everywhere."If you...
For years, parents were told not to expose their babies to peanuts, to prevent a potentially...
Nearly 80 people got sick in a norovirus outbreak on an Oceania Cruises ship.Among the 637...
Late last month, the New York City medical examiner confirmed the man who shot and killed...
