Minireview: Directed Differentiation and Encapsulation of Islet β-Cells-Recent Advances and Future Considerations.

ABSTRACT: Diabetes mellitus has rapidly become a 21st century epidemic with the promise to create vast economic and health burdens, if left unchecked. The 2 major forms of diabetes arise from unique causes, with outcomes being an absolute (type 1) or relative (type 2) loss of functional pancreatic islet β-cell mass. Currently, patients rely on exogenous insulin and/or other pharmacologies that restore glucose homeostasis. Although these therapies have prolonged countless lives over the decades, the striking increases in both type 1 and type 2 diabetic diagnoses worldwide suggest a need for improved treatments. To this end, islet biologists are developing cell-based therapies by which a patient's lost insulin-producing β-cell mass is replenished. Pancreatic or islet transplantation from cadaveric don

SUBMITTER: Tse HM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4588727 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature