Gastrointestinal stem cells. I. Pancreatic stem cells.

The transplantation of islets isolated from donor pancreas has renewed the interest in cell therapy for the treatment of diabetes. In addition, the capacity that stem cells have to differentiate into a wide variety of cell types makes their use ideal to generate beta-cells for transplantation therapies. Several studies have reported the generation of insulin-secreting cells from embryonic and adult stem cells that normalized blood glucose values when transplanted into diabetic animal models. Finally, although much work remains to be done, there is sufficient evidence to warrant continued efforts on stem cell research to cure diabetes.