title: Finally! A human pancreatic β cell line.
abstract: For decades, investigators have made numerous attempts to generate human pancreatic β cell lines that could be used to advance β cell biology, facilitate drug discovery, and provide a pathway to β cell replacement therapy for the treatment of diabetes. In this issue of the JCI, Ravassard and colleagues report that this has finally been achieved successfully with a multistep process that led to the generation of cells, which they termed EndoC-βH1 cells, that secreted insulin in response to glucose challenge.
authors.affiliation: Section on Islet Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Joslin Diabetes Center, and Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA. gordon.weir@joslin.harvard.edu
authors.forename: Gordon C
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Weir
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bonner-Weir
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002460:Cell Line; D005947:Glucose / Q000494:pharmacology*; D006801:Humans; D007328:Insulin / Q000378:metabolism*; D000078790:Insulin Secretion; D050417:Insulin-Secreting Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male
chemical_list: D007328:Insulin; D005947:Glucose