Scientists have succeeded in eliminating diabetes in sick mice by transplanting human stomach cells modified to produce insulin, the hormone that regulates blood glucose levels.
American researchers have managed to cure mice of diabetes thanks to the transplant of human stomach cells reprogrammed to produce theinsulinthe hormone secreted by pancreas to monitor i sugar levels (glycemia) in the blood. As is known, people affected by the type 1 diabetes and from severe type 2 diabetes must undergo constant injections of insulin to regulate blood sugar: these diseases, in fact, determine the destruction / alteration of beta cells present within the islets of Langherans in the pancreas, responsible for the secretion of the aforementioned hormone. This need leads to a reduction in quality of life and risks related to a potential ineffectiveness in glucose control under certain circumstances. Through transplantation of these gastric cells converted into “beta-cell-like” in the form of aggregates – called organoids – able to secrete insulin could change the lives of millions of people around the world. At the moment it is only an experimental project, but the efficacy demonstrated in mouse models (mice) affected by diabetes is undoubtedly very promising.
Transforming human stomach cells into cells capable of secreting insulin to treat diabetes and demonstrating its effectiveness was an international research team led by scientists from the Weill Cornell Medicine Department of Medicine in New York, who collaborated close contact with colleagues from the Department of Microbiology-Infectivology and Immunology of Laval University (Canada), Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard University School of Medicine. The scientists, coordinated by Professor Qiao Zhou, professor of regenerative medicine and member of the Hartman Institute for Therapeutic Organ Regeneration at the New York University, have come to this result after 15 years of experimentation. The research had begun starting from the conversion of other pancreatic cells into beta cells, through the activation of three transcription factors (proteins called NGN3 and PDX1-MAFA) that control thegene expression, as specified in a press release from Weill Cornell Medicine. In 2016, Professor Zhou and his colleagues discovered that some cells in the stomach can also be reprogrammed in the same way to produce insulin.
“The stomach produces its own hormone-secreting cells, and stomach cells and pancreatic cells are adjacent in the embryonic stage of development, so in this sense it is not entirely surprising that gastric stem cells can be so easily transformed into similar- insulin-secreting beta cells,” explained Dr. Zhou. These human gastric cells, technically called gastric insulin-secreting cells (GINS), were grown in the laboratory in organoids and then implanted in mice with diabetes, where they successfully controlled the disease by starting to secrete the hormone and naturally balance blood glucose levels. The transplanted organoids were able to control sugar for six months after implantation, suggesting long-lasting function that can be very valuable to patients. “GINS organoids acquired glucose-stimulated insulin secretion in 10 days and restored glucose homeostasis over 100 days in diabetic mice after transplantation, providing proof of concept for a promising approach for treating diabetes,” explained the authors in the study abstract.
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These GINS cells could be obtained starting from intestinal stem cells, abundant and which can be converted in any cell of the body. Patients would be transplanted with their own cells, in order to reduce the risk of rejection of the organoids by the immune system. We emphasize that these are preclinical results and before being able to see these organoids applied in the clinical setting (on humans) it could be many years. The details of the research “Stomach-derived human insulin-secreting organoids restore glucose homeostasis” have been published in the authoritative scientific journal Nature Cell Biology.