Igniting hope for a new-and-improved stem cell therapy for type 1 diabetes, scientists have reported a method for creating insulin-producing cells that reverse diabetes in mice and may overcome some of the hurdles faced by existing treatments. Karolinska Institutet and KTH Royal Institute of Technology (both Stockholm, Sweden) researchers have introduced a novel system for generating pancreatic islet cells from multiple human stem cell lines. In vitro studies demonstrated that the cells produced insulin and were responsive to glucose, while in vivo experiments in diabetic mice revealed that they restored glycemic control, highlighting their potential as a treatment for type 1 diabetes. In type 1 diabetes, insulin-producing β cells are selectively destroyed by the immune system, resulting in an inability to regulate blood glucose levels. One potential treatment option is stem cell therapy, which involves the transplantation of pancreatic islets derived from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSC). Although these sorts of therapies are already in clinical trials, current protocols face significant challenges, often resulting in limited islet maturity, reduced glucose sensitivity and heterogeneous cultures that contain non-endocrine cells, which are associated with a risk of cyst or tumor formation. In hopes of offering a solution to this problem, the researchers report a new strategy that consistently generates functional stem cell-derived pancreatic islets across eight hPSC lines. Their optimized protocol kicks off with differentiation of hPSCs to endocrine progenitor cells on 2D laminin-521, a step that is improved by shortening the prior pancreatic progenitor stage. Then, endocrine progenitors are allowed to…
