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- Title
Harnessing the Endogenous Plasticity of Pancreatic Islets: A Feasible Regenerative Medicine Therapy for Diabetes?
- Authors
Lorenzo, Petra I.; Cobo-Vuilleumier, Nadia; Martín-Vázquez, Eugenia; López-Noriega, Livia; Gauthier, Benoit R.
- Abstract
Diabetes is a chronic metabolic disease caused by an absolute or relative deficiency in functional pancreatic β-cells that leads to defective control of blood glucose. Current treatments for diabetes, despite their great beneficial effects on clinical symptoms, are not curative treatments, leading to a chronic dependence on insulin throughout life that does not prevent the secondary complications associated with diabetes. The overwhelming increase in DM incidence has led to a search for novel antidiabetic therapies aiming at the regeneration of the lost functional β-cells to allow the re-establishment of the endogenous glucose homeostasis. Here we review several aspects that must be considered for the development of novel and successful regenerative therapies for diabetes: first, the need to maintain the heterogeneity of islet β-cells with several subpopulations of β-cells characterized by different transcriptomic profiles correlating with differences in functionality and in resistance/behavior under stress conditions; second, the existence of an intrinsic islet plasticity that allows stimulus-mediated transcriptome alterations that trigger the transdifferentiation of islet non-β-cells into β-cells; and finally, the possibility of using agents that promote a fully functional/mature β-cell phenotype to reduce and reverse the process of dedifferentiation of β-cells during diabetes.
- Subjects
ISLANDS of Langerhans; REGENERATIVE medicine; DIABETES complications; DIABETES; METABOLIC disorders; BLOOD sugar; HOMEOSTASIS
- Publication
International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 2021, Vol 22, Issue 8, p4239
- ISSN
1661-6596
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.3390/ijms22084239