Modifying Alpha Cells into Beta Cells Helps Treat Diabetes by Angela Mohan on March 2, 2021 at 12:29 PM
PNAS.
More than 34 million Americans have diabetes, a disease characterized by a loss of beta cells in the pancreas. Beta cells produce insulin, a hormone necessary for cells to absorb and use glucose, a type of sugar that circulates in the blood and serves as cellular fuel.
In Type 2 diabetes, the body s tissues develop insulin resistance, prompting beta cells to die from exhaustion from secreting excess insulin to allow cells to take in glucose.
In Type 1 diabetes, which affects about 10 percent of the diabetic population, beta cells die from an autoimmune attack. Both kinds of diabetes lead to severely elevated blood sugar levels that eventually cause a host of possible complications, including loss of limbs and eyesight, kidney damage, diabetic coma, and death.