Animals without their beta cells became healthy again
The cells are derived from human pancreas and have been modified to respond to glucose production by producing insulin. Although the cells are derived from the organ responsible for insulin production, they were previously unable to perform this task. Because insulin gets out of the so-called beta cells in circulation, but the researchers used alpha cells. The doctors took the reprogrammed cells and planted them in mice that had type 1 diabetes. The animals did not have their beta cells. The implanted human cells immediately started their new function and regulated the blood sugar level to an average degree. Soon the mice were visibly better!
In the healing of people have not arrived yet
The good condition of the test animals also continued over a period of 6 months, so it was not a temporary phenomenon. However, the researchers did not leave it to let the animals get healthy, but they retook the new cells and watched as the rodents immediately suffered from diabetes again. For human diabetes patients, this result should be real hope, even if the animals were not given a final cure. However, the whole process is not yet completely outgrown; for example, there is still no possibility of cell programming, without affecting surrounding cells.
Now, it has been proven that cells from human organs can be changed so that they fulfill entirely different tasks than before. This finding could well spread to other medical areas where it comes to making organs functional again.
