Word: pancreases
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Using this technique, Melton and his colleagues were able to turn ordinary mouse exocrine cells of the pancreas into beta cells, vital insulin-producing cells that die off in Type I diabetes patients.
Using this technique, Melton and his colleagues were able to turn ordinary mouse exocrine cells of the pancreas into beta cells, vital insulin-producing cells that die off in Type I diabetes patients.
Of over 1,100 transcription factors in the mouse genome, only 200 or so are expressed in the cells involved in forming the pancreas, 28 of which are expressed in the part of the gland organ where beta cells are found.
The Melton team started its work with pancreas cells that pump out gut enzymes used in digestion and turned them into pancreatic "beta" cells, which make insulin.
The researchers destroyed beta cells in mice with a poison, giving the mice diabetes. Then they injected the pancreas with viruses that slipped into the enzyme-making cells. These viruses delivered three genes that control the activity of other genes.