EON

Cells Changed Inside Mice To Achieve Different Biological Purpose

Boston, MA- There are a number of different research studies that have been performed with stem cells, but there has been a new advance accomplished by researchers from the Harvard medical research facility.

Harvard researchers have announced that they have been able to take adult pancreas cells and re program them, inside of mice, to do a different function than they originally were meant to do.

Three molecular switches were used by researchers, and it resulted to convert adult cells that are commonplace in the pancreas, into more specific insulin production cells, similar to the ones that diabetics need to survive.

The research is being published in the Journal of Nature, and the article describes how the cells that are present in mice were used to change, and how they were reprogrammed to do a different function.

The prospect that this type of research could be duplicated with human beings is a huge discovery, one that could radically affect the ongoing search for a cure for diabetes.

Insulin is used by the body to help process natural and artificial blood sugars, as well as having an impact on different diseases and their progression, including heart disease and other types of maladies.

The new work has been hailed by experts in the field as an important new advance, but may be considered controversial, because some of the elements of the work are supported by embryonic stem cells, harvested from human embryos.