Research shows beta cell proliferation after diabetes diagnosis

New research has revealed that insulin-producing beta cells can proliferate in patients recently diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.

Researchers from the Peninsula Medical School, working in collaboration with colleagues from Glasgow Royal infirmary and the University of Brighton used a unique collection of pancreas specimens taken from patients who died soon after diagnosis of type 1 diabetes to show that the pancreas responds to the ongoing process of islet cell destruction by inducing their islet cells to proliferate. The research is published on-line at Diabetologia and is funded by JDRF.
The factors that trigger the replication process in patients with type 1 diabetes are still unclear, although the study shows a correlation with the infiltration of immune cells. The results of the research offer the future hope that it might be possible to encourage a newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes patient’s own beta cells to reproduce as a means of replacing those cells being destroyed by the disease.