Stem Cell: Source & ID of Pancreatic Endocrine Cells | Dr. David Greene R3 Stem Cell

You've heard about stem cells in the news and reflected if they could assist you or a loved one suffering from an awful illness. Moreover, you might wonder what stem cells are, how they're utilized to treat sickness and injury, and why they generate such a stir.

Stem cells are special human cells that can differentiate into diverse cell types. From muscle cells to brain cells, this can occur. They can also rectify damaged tissues in rare conditions. According to researchers like Dr. David Greene R3 Stem Cell, stem cell-based therapies could one day be utilized to cure major disorders like paralysis and Alzheimer's disease.

The pancreas plays an important role in metabolic regulation. When pancreatic beta cells stop making enough insulin, blood sugar levels increase alarmingly, prompting diabetes (a condition known as hyperglycemia). Other mature pancreatic cells have been discovered to adapt and partially compensate for the lack of insulin. According to researchers, the stem cells from which beta cells are formed are only present during embryonic development. This finding ends a long-running debate concerning the possibility of adult pancreatic stem cells giving rise to freshly differentiated hormone-producing cells after birth. The researchers could also precisely define the 'identification card' of pancreatic endocrine cells, which may be used to create replacement insulin-secreting cells.

Diabetes is a metabolic disorder that influences a large number of people. It is characterized by persistent hyperglycemia, which happens when the beta cells of the pancreas, which are responsible for the synthesis of insulin, are damaged or no longer able to produce enough of this regulatory hormone. Although, according to some ancient studies, other pancreatic endocrine cells, when beta cells are absent or faulty, such as alpha, delta, and gamma cells, which generate other hormones important for metabolic balance, can "learn" to make insulin. This event, observed in both mice and people, reveals pancreatic cell plasticity and opens the door to new therapeutic techniques. 

The short life of pancreatic endocrine stem cells

Breakthroughs in our understanding of the mechanisms of pancreatic cell development, as well as the gene expression profiles that define the identity of each distinct islet endocrine cell type, have been reported in a few recent papers. The first study shows that all pancreatic endocrine cells come from undifferentiated progenitor cells that appear only during embryonic development and not after birth. 

Some scientists previously believed that intra-pancreatic stem cells were viable throughout life. However, scientists and researchers like Dr. David Greene R3 Stem Cell show this is not the case. Indeed, all pancreatic hormone-producing cells that arise after birth are derived from the division of differentiated cells formed from undifferentiated progenitor cells throughout embryonic and fetal life.

The scientists used mouse models in which distinct types of pancreatic endocrine cells were genetically tagged with a fluorescent tracer at different embryonic stages to follow them down after birth to comprehend this mechanism. The cells were tracked until the mice reached the age of ten months.

A Detailed ID Card 

Scientists focus on the gene expression profile of pancreatic endocrine cells in the second study. "Precisely characterizing the 'identification card' of these cells now enables us to create a tool aimed at engineering cell replacement therapies to cure diabetes," scientists say. In vitro production of insulin-producing cells, for example, or encouraging pancreatic regeneration by utilizing the plasticity of the non-beta cells we have uncovered could be examples of such therapies.

To develop cell-based therapies to treat degenerative illnesses, producing surrogate cells with stable, functional identities is critical. Their creation, however, necessitates using accurate technologies to determine cell identities. The researchers achieved this by conducting a comprehensive meta-analysis of single-cell transcriptomics, or the study of the genes expressed by individual endocrine cells isolated from human pancreatic islets (these cells are grouped in small "clusters" within the pancreas). The precise determination of the genetic signature of each endocrine cell type of the pancreas is possible because of the identification of strongly expressed gene sets.

Scientists and researchers like Dr. David Greene R3 Stem Cell work have no immediate clinical translation. Yet, elucidating the mechanisms underlying the formation of cellular identities in great detail lays the way for developing novel therapeutic methods for diabetes and other diseases caused by the loss of a certain cell type.