title: Beyond islet transplantation in diabetes cell therapy: from embryonic stem cells to transdifferentiation of adult cells.
abstract: Exogenous insulin is, at the moment, the therapy of choice of diabetes, but does not allow tight regulation of glucose leading to long-term complications. Recently, pancreatic islet transplantation to reconstitute insulin-producing β cells, has emerged as an alternative promising therapeutic approach. Unfortunately, the number of donor islets is too low compared with the high number of patients needing a transplantation leading to a search for renewable sources of high-quality β-cells. This review, summarizes more recent promising approaches to the generation of new β-cells from embryonic stem cells for transdifferentiation of adult cells, particularly a critical examination of the seminal work by Lumelsky et al.
authors.affiliation: Transplant Unit, AOUP P. Giaccone, School of Medicine, Università degli Studi di Palermo, Palermo, Italy.
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Gioviale
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bellavia
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Damiano
authors.forename: A I
authors.initials: AI
authors.lastname: Lo Monte
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000601:surgery*; D053595:Embryonic Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D006801:Humans; D016381:Islets of Langerhans Transplantation