Diabetes Research Institute.
Stem Cells Transl Med. 2012 Jan;1(1):59-63. doi: 10.5966/sctm.2011-0017. Epub 2011 Dec 7.
Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have already made their mark in the young field of regenerative medicine. Easily derived from many adult tissues, their therapeutic worth has already been validated for a number of conditions. Unlike embryonic stem cells, neither their procurement nor their use is deemed controversial. Here we review the potential use of MSCs for the treatment of type 1 diabetes mellitus, a devastating chronic disease in which the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas (the β-cells) are the target of an autoimmune process. It has been hypothesized that stem cell-derived β-cells may be used to replenish the islet mass in diabetic patients, making islet transplantation (a form of cell therapy that has already proven effective at clinically restoring normoglycemia) available to millions of prospective patients. Here we review the most current advances in the design and application of protocols for the differentiation of transplantable β-cells, with a special emphasis in analyzing MSC potency according to their tissue of origin. Although no single method appears to be ripe enough for clinical trials yet, recent progress in reprogramming (a biotechnological breakthrough that relativizes the thus far insurmountable barriers between embryonal germ layers) bodes well for the rise of MSCs as a potential weapon of choice to develop personalized therapies for type 1 diabetes.
间充质干细胞 (MSCs) 在再生医学这一新兴领域已经崭露头角。它们很容易从许多成人组织中提取，其治疗价值已经在多种疾病中得到验证。与胚胎干细胞不同，它们的获取和使用都不被认为存在争议。在这里，我们回顾了 MSCs 治疗 1 型糖尿病的潜力，1 型糖尿病是一种破坏性的慢性疾病，胰腺中的胰岛素产生细胞（β 细胞）是自身免疫过程的靶标。人们假设，干细胞衍生的β 细胞可用于补充糖尿病患者的胰岛质量，使胰岛移植（一种已经被证明在临床上能使血糖恢复正常的细胞治疗形式）能够应用于数百万潜在的患者。在这里，我们回顾了用于分化可移植β细胞的方案设计和应用的最新进展，特别强调根据其组织来源分析 MSC 的效力。尽管目前似乎没有一种方法已经成熟到可以进行临床试验，但最近在重编程方面的进展（这是生物技术的突破，使胚胎胚层之间迄今为止不可逾越的障碍相对化）为 MSCs 作为一种潜在的选择武器来开发 1 型糖尿病的个性化治疗带来了希望。
