Transforming Alpha Cells Into Beta Cells: a Novel, Complementary Approach for Treating Type 2 Diabetes in the Future

A team of American scientists has successfully reprogrammed insulin-producing cells in an effort to discover a new way to fight diabetes. They treated human islet cells with a chemical that inhibits a protein that puts methyl chemical groups on histones, which leads to removal of some histone modifications that affect gene expression. They found a high frequency of alpha cells that expressed beta-cell markers, and even produced some insulin, after drug treatment. Online in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. Feb 2013