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Project

Biological compounds to regenerate the beta cell mass in diabetes (FWOAL628)

Characterization of mechanisms that control the formation of new beta cells in the pancreas of patients with diabetes would be a major medical breakthrough. We recently discovered that the beta cell mass is completely restored in 57 out of 62 diabetic mice when bone marrow-derived cells were transplanted into the pancreas. Such high efficiency has not been reported before. The regenerative process is the result of a sequence of events in which recruitment of immune system cells leads to blood vessel growth in the damaged islets of Langerhans to induce activation of beta cell progenitors and proliferation of beta cells.
The project aims to uncover other biological compounds with regenerative capacity that, alone or in addition to VEGF increase the success rate and to control beta cell regeneration by transplantation of activated macrophages.
Date:1 Jan 2012 →  31 Dec 2015
Keywords:biology
Disciplines:Biological sciences