Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

DIABETES

Cell makeover for diabetes therapy

Patients with severe diabetes rely on insulin injections to control their blood glucose. A study now provides evidence that human cells that normally do not release insulin can be converted into insulin-producing cells that are able to normalize glycaemia in diabetic mice.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Reprogramming of human α-cells into β-cells.

References

  1. Zhou, Q. & Melton, D. A. Nature 557, 351–358 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Aguayo-Mazzucato, C. & Bonner-Weir, S. Cell Metab. 27, 57–67 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Bakhti, M., Böttcher, A. & Lickert, H. Nat. Rev. Endocrinol. 15, 155–171 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Thorel, F. et al. Nature 464, 1149–1154 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Chera, S. et al. Nature 514, 503–507 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Furuyama, K. et al. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-0942-8 (2019).

  7. Matsuoka, T. A. et al. Diabetes 66, 1293–1300 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Roscioni, S. S., Migliorini, A., Gegg, M. & Lickert, H. Nat. Rev. Endocrinol. 12, 695–709 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Wang, Y. et al. Mol. Ther. 26, 1327–1342 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Dorrell, C. et al. Stem Cell Res. 1, 183–194 (2008).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Heiko Lickert.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Bakhti, M., Lickert, H. Cell makeover for diabetes therapy. Nat Metab 1, 312–313 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-019-0048-5

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-019-0048-5

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing