Stem cells from the pancreas can become insulin-producing cells. (Photo by Thinkstock)

Researchers led by City of Hope’s Hsun Teresa Ku, Ph.D., found that stem cells grown in two special gels developed into cells that produce insulin.

“Eventually, if we can find a way to scale up the process, we might be able to create banks of insulin-producing cells,” Ku said. One day, this could even lead to an unlimited supply for transplant into type 1 diabetes patients.

How islet cell transplantation works now

In islet cell transplantation, researchers gather islet cells — the cells that naturally form insulin in the body — from donated pancreases and transplant them into patients with severe type 1 diabetes. This provides a new source of insulin, a hormone the body needs to metabolize the sugar glucose. People with diabetes can’t metabolize glucose, leading to severe and often life-threatening health problems.

The transplant process often requires more than one pancreas to gather enough healthy islet cells. This places a severe limitation on the number of patients who can undergo the potentially lifesaving procedure because donated pancreases are in short supply.

Promise for the future

If researchers can find a way to create more insulin-producing cells for transplantation in the lab, they could reduce the transplant process to just one pancreas, giving more patients access to the procedure.

“The process for gathering islet cells from pancreata leaves a lot of extra tissue,” Ku said. From this tissue, researchers can collect stem cells and grow them using the new method. The scientists could generate enough extra insulin-producing cells to meet the patient’s need and then some. Eventually, they hope to provide a limitless supply.

What the researchers did

Ku’s team took stem cells from the pancreases of mice and grew them first in dishes containing a substance called Matrigel. Consisting of a gelatinous mixture of proteins, Matrigel partially recreates the environment that surrounds cells in many tissues in the body. The cells can grow more naturally this way than in petri dishes or flasks.

The researchers next transferred the cells from the Matrigel to a unique gel containing a protein called laminin. In this laminin hydrogel, made by scientists at Caltech in Pasadena, Calif., the cells formed colonies that produce insulin.

These colonies could help make islet cell transplantation to cure type 1 diabetes more efficient and effective.

The study was published online Feb. 19 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Office of Naval Research, the National Science Foundation, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and the Eugene and Ruth Roberts Summer Student Academy at City of Hope.

NIH Grant #s: DK081587, DK089533, DK078803 and CA33572