Diabetes develops when pancreatic beta cells are no longer capable of releasing the amounts of insulin needed to regulate blood glucose. It reduces the quality of life and increases the risks of serious complications for more than 170 million people worldwide.

In Type 1 (juvenile) diabetes, the body’s immune system attacks and destroys the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. It can be treated by islet transplantation, where islets (containing beta cells) are taken from a donor’s pancreas and transferred to a person with the disease.

There are not enough donor organs, however, to treat more than a tiny fraction of those who suffer from Type 1 diabetes.

Researchers are investigating whether stem cells might help this problem of supply. If it were possible to generate insulin-producing beta cells from embryonic stem cellsⁱ, for example, there would be a potentially unlimited supply for transplantation.

Study of stem cells could also yield critical knowledge about beta cell and pancreatic development and enable researchers to regenerate beta cell function in new-onset or prediabetes stages.

One of the main objectives of European consortium BetaCellTherapy is to generate therapeutic beta cells from human embryonic stem cells.

Relevant links
Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International
BetaCellTherapy