Pancreas Not Working? Liver Coaxed to Take Over

Work being performed by scientists in Israel's Sheba Medical Center may eventually lead to the use of a patients' own liver cells as a treatment for their diabetes. They have found that by treating adult liver cells with a substance that controls pancreatic cell development during gestation, these cells start behaving the same way as pancreatic cells and begin to secret insulin when transplanted into dibetic mice.

The Sheba team hopes that their work will avoid the need to rely on donor cells - or controversial alternatives, such as the use of stem cells taken from foetal or embryonic tissue.

They treated adult human liver cells with a factor that controls pancreas development in the embryo, called PDX-1.

This stimulated the cells to behave in the same way as insulin-producing pancreatic cells.

Not only did they start to produce the hormone, they began to secrete it in response to blood sugar levels.

When the cells were transplanted into mice with symptoms of diabetes, the animals' blood sugar levels gradually decreased.

via: BBC News UK