Part 2 of a 3 part series on the recent JDRF/University of Geneva study of α-to-β-cell conversion in mice. Read Part 1.
So what do the researchers do with a bunch of diphtheria-infused, pseudo-diabetic mice? Watch and wait.
Immediately after the diphtheria injection, more than 99% of the mice’s β-cells had been ablated (killed off). In other words, there may have been an occasional, stray β-cell left behind, but nothing that would allow the mouse pancreas to create enough insulin to maintain glycemic control.
Fifteen days after the injection, though, the researchers euthanized a subset of the mice and measured the β-cell mass in the pancreas; they found three times as many β-cells as immediately after injection, and ten times as much creation of insulin. In other words, the mice were regenerating β-cells and regaining the ability to manufacture insulin on their own.
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