Forum for Science, Industry and Business
Sponsored by:     Siemens     3M    n-tv
Search our Site:

Topic (optional):

 

Home Reports Life Sciences Content

Genetic study reveals how endocrine cell types are produced in the pancreas

next article
06.03.2007

An international research team has identified the process by which pancreatic progenitor cells give rise to different endocrine cell types.

 

This work, published March 6, 2007 in the journal Developmental Cell, sheds new light on the mechanism by which insulin-producing beta cells are generated in the pancreas, and may open the door to new treatment avenues for type 1 diabetes.


...more about:
beta Endocrine insulin-producing pancreas progenitor

The pancreas plays a critical role in our ability to convert food into fuel. Type 1 diabetes is a chronic (lifelong) disease in which beta cells in the pancreas lose their ability to produce the amounts of insulin needed to control blood sugar levels. Those afflicted suffer reduced quality of life and risk life-threatening complications from the disease. This form of diabetes usually strikes children and young adults, although disease onset can occur at any age. Type 1 diabetes accounts for 5 percent to 10 percent of all diagnosed cases of diabetes and has no cure. Insulin injections provide treatment, but their effectiveness is limited.

One possible avenue for treatment would be to restore the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. But relatively little is known about how the body produces these cells during development and how the cells are regenerated in adults. Scientists do know that all pancreatic endocrine cells, including insulin-producing beta cells, arise from a single line of “progenitor cells” that express the gene Neurogenin 3.

The experiments carried out by researchers from the Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research and EPFL, in collaboration with INSERM and Vanderbilt University, used transgenic mice to explore the stages by which the different endocrine cell types, including insulin-producing beta cells, are produced from the progenitor cells. They showed that the trigger causing progenitor cells to switch from generating one cell type to generating another does not require signals from cells surrounding the progenitors.

By pinpointing the mechanisms involved in the different stages of endocrine cell production, this work sheds new light on when and how insulin-producing beta cells are generated in the pancreas. These experiments should help the future identification of a molecule responsible for the ability to generate beta cells, and might lead to techniques to restore these cells in individuals with type 1 diabetes.

Mary Parlange | Source: alphagalileo
Further information: www.epfl.ch

Further Reports about: beta Endocrine insulin-producing pancreas progenitor

next article

More articles from Life Sciences:

nachricht In Early Earth, Iron Helped RNA Catalyze Electron Transfer
21.05.2013 | Georgia Institute of Technology, Research Communications

nachricht Resistance to last-line antibiotic makes bacteria resistant to immune system
21.05.2013 | American Society for Microbiology

All articles from Life Sciences >>>
The most recent press releases about innovation >>>

Overview of the latest five Focus news of the innovations-report:
In the focus: A New Type of Laser

University of Würzburg physicists have succeeded in creating a new type of laser.

Its operation principle is completely different from conventional devices, which opens up the possibility of a significantly reduced energy input requirement. The researchers report their work in the current issue of Nature.

It also emits light the waves of which are in phase with one another: the polariton laser, developed ...

In the focus: Competition in the Quantum World

Innsbruck physicists led by Rainer Blatt and Peter Zoller experimentally gained a deep insight into the nature of quantum mechanical phase transitions.

They are the first scientists that simulated the competition between two rival dynamical processes at a novel type of transition between two quantum mechanical orders. They have published the results of their work in the journal Nature Physics.

“When water boils, its molecules are released as vapor. We call this ...

In the focus: GPS solution provides three-minute tsunami alerts

Researchers have shown that, by using global positioning systems (GPS) to measure ground deformation caused by a large underwater earthquake, they can provide accurate warning of the resulting tsunami in just a few minutes after the earthquake onset.

For the devastating Japan 2011 event, the team reveals that the analysis of the GPS data and issue of a detailed tsunami alert would have taken no more than three minutes. The results are published on 17 May in Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, an open access journal of ...

In the focus: NASA Satellite Data Helps Pinpoint Glaciers' Role in Sea Level Rise

A new study of glaciers worldwide using observations from two NASA satellites has helped resolve differences in estimates of how fast glaciers are disappearing and contributing to sea level rise.

The new research found glaciers outside of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, repositories of 1 percent of all land ice, lost an average of 571 trillion pounds (259 trillion kilograms) of mass every year during the six-year study period, making the oceans rise 0.03 inches (0.7 mm) per year. ...

In the focus: Sea level: one third of its rise comes from melting mountain glaciers

About 99% of the world’s land ice is stored in the huge ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland, while only 1% is contained in glaciers.

However, the meltwater of glaciers contributed almost as much to the rise in sea level in the period 2003 to 2009 as the two ice sheets: about one third. This is one of the results of an international study with the involvement of geographers from the University of Zurich.

How ...

All Focus news of the innovations-report >>>

B2B Search

Product / Service
Company / Organisation

Latest News

Graphene Study Confirms 40-Year-Old Physics Prediction

21.05.2013 | Studies and Analyses

In Early Earth, Iron Helped RNA Catalyze Electron Transfer

21.05.2013 | Life Sciences

New era of fisheries policy needed to secure nutrition for millions

21.05.2013 | Studies and Analyses

VideoLinks
B2B-VideoLinks
More VideoLinks >>>

Event News

ITS European Congress: Traffic Warning and Information Platform

17.05.2013 | Event News

European Research Infrastructures help to solve air quality issues

15.05.2013 | Event News

The Problem of the European Unemployment

08.05.2013 | Event News