title: Reprogramming of liver cells into insulin-producing cells.
abstract: Tissue replacement is a promising direction for the treatment of diabetes, which will become widely available only when islets or insulin-producing cells that will not be rejected by the diabetic recipients are available in unlimited amounts. The present review addresses the research in the field of generating functional insulin-producing cells by transdifferentiation of adult liver cells both in vitro and in vivo. It presents recent knowledge of the mechanisms which underlie the process and assesses the challenges which should be addressed for its efficient implementation as a cell based replacement therapy for diabetics.
authors.affiliation: Sheba Regenerative Medicine, Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering Center, Sheba Medical Center, Tel-Hashomer 52621, Israel. Electronic address: Irit.meivar-levy@sheba.health.gov.il.
authors.forename: Irit
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Meivar-Levy
authors.affiliation: Sheba Regenerative Medicine, Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering Center, Sheba Medical Center, Tel-Hashomer 52621, Israel; Department of Human Genetics and Molecular Medicine, Sackler School of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, 69978, Israel. Electronic address: sferber@sheba.health.gov.il.
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ferber
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D054338:Cell Transdifferentiation; D022781:Hepatocytes / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D050417:Insulin-Secreting Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000637:transplantation; D008115:Liver Regeneration
keywords: diabetes; liver; pancreatic transcription factors; reprogramming; transdifferentiation