Wong Rebecca S Y
Division of Human Biology, School of Medical and Health Sciences, International Medical University, No. 126, Jalan Jalil Perkasa 19, Bukit Jalil, 57000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Exp Diabetes Res. 2011;2011:406182. doi: 10.1155/2011/406182. Epub 2011 Jun 16.
Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease with many debilitating complications. Treatment of diabetes mellitus mainly revolves around conventional oral hypoglycaemic agents and insulin replacement therapy. Recently, scientists have turned their attention to the generation of insulin-producing cells (IPCs) from stem cells of various sources. To date, many types of stem cells of human and animal origins have been successfully turned into IPCs in vitro and have been shown to exert glucose-lowering effect in vivo. However, scientists are still faced with the challenge of producing a sufficient number of IPCs that can in turn produce sufficient insulin for clinical use. A careful choice of stem cells, methods, and extrinsic factors for induction may all be contributing factors to successful production of functional beta-islet like IPCs. It is also important that the mechanism of differentiation and mechanism by which IPCs correct hyperglycaemia are carefully studied before they are used in human subjects.
糖尿病是一种伴有许多使人衰弱并发症的慢性疾病。糖尿病的治疗主要围绕传统口服降糖药和胰岛素替代疗法展开。最近，科学家们已将注意力转向从各种来源的干细胞生成胰岛素产生细胞（IPCs）。迄今为止，许多类型的人和动物来源的干细胞已在体外成功转化为IPCs，并已显示在体内具有降血糖作用。然而，科学家们仍面临着生成足够数量的IPCs的挑战，这些IPCs反过来又能产生足够的胰岛素用于临床。仔细选择干细胞、方法和诱导的外在因素可能都是成功产生功能性β胰岛样IPCs的促成因素。同样重要的是，在将IPCs用于人类受试者之前，要仔细研究其分化机制和IPCs纠正高血糖的机制。
