Human stem cells stimulate insulin in diabetic mice

By Martha Kerr

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Transplantation of human stromal cells into diabetic mice stimulated native mouse beta cells to produce insulin, researchers report in the latest issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The researchers say it is possible that multipotent stromal cell infusions may correct the metabolic disorders and heal some of the damage caused by diabetes in diabetic patients in the future.

Dr. Darwin J. Prockop and colleagues at Tulane University in New Orleans, extracted multipotent stromal cells from human bone marrow and transplanted them into diabetic mice.

Before transplantation, the mice had severe hyperglycemia (high blood sugar) and a loss of function in B and T cells. Lower blood glucose levels were seen in treated mice by day 32 but not in untreated control mice.

On days 17 and 32, human DNA sequences were found only in the pancreas and kidneys of treated mice.

Treated animals had an increase in pancreatic islets and beta cells that produced mouse insulin.

"In the (mouse) pancreas, the human cells promoted the regeneration of mouse cells that produce mouse insulin," Prockop told Reuters Health. "In the kidney, the human cells probably helped repair the damage that diabetes does to the kidneys. The cells were there after a month and we think they can probably last much longer."

SOURCE: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, November 14, 2006.