ScienceDaily: New Direction For Pancreas Cell Regeneration

"Replacing faulty or missing cells with new insulin-making cells has been the object of diabetes research for the last decade. Past studies in tissue culture have suggested that one type of pancreas cell could be coaxed to transform into insulin-producing islet cells."

"Now, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have demonstrated that these pancreatic acinar cells do not become insulin-producing cells in an animal model. However, they did show that injured pancreatic cells readily regenerate back into healthy acinar cells, which has implications for treating cancer and inflammation of the pancreas. This study appears in the April issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation. The research also holds promise for new techniques for pancreas cell manipulation.
The pancreas is made up of two compartments with different functions: the islet compartment of insulin-producing beta cells and the much larger exocrine compartment composed of duct cells and acinar cells that make and deliver enzymes to the intestine for digestion. Diabetes is caused by the failure of the beta cells to make insulin, whereas pancreatic cancer usually originates from the exocrine compartment. Under certain conditions in tissue culture, acinar cells can synthesize insulin as well as amylase, a digestion enzyme."