Devolving pancreatic cells could cause diabetes

Western Australian researchers have created a new scientific model for the development of type 2 diabetes, which can be caused by the failure of insulin-producing pancreatic beta (β) cells.

According to the head of Diabetes Research WA, Professor Grant Morahan, “There’s increasing evidence to suggest that in type 2 diabetes these β cells could be failing because they’re being triggered to revert to more primitive forms of themselves — a process called dedifferentiation.”

Writing in the Journal of Neuroendocrinology, Professor Morahan and his colleagues hypothesised that a high-glucose in vitro environment mimics hyperglycaemia in vivo and that β cells grown in such an environment over a long period will undergo dedifferentiation. To test their theory, they cultured beta cells from a mouse model in a high-glucose condition.

“The pancreatic β cell line mouse insulinoma 6 (MIN6) … did not undergo massive cell death but exhibited a glucose-stimulated insulin-secreting profile similar to that of immature β cells,” the study authors wrote. As explained by Professor Morahan, the cells “lost their ability to release insulin, giving us a model to study dedifferentiation”.

The next step is for the scientists to use the model to screen existing medications. Professor Morahan stated, “Our goal is to find a new way to treat or cure type 2 diabetes, so we’re now looking to identify a drug that can reverse the dedifferentiation process, returning the immature beta cells to mature cells that work as they should.”

While a healthy diet and regular exercise can often prevent or delay type 2 diabetes, research shows about four out of 10 people may not currently be able to avoid developing it. There is thus a “real and urgent need” for research into new and targeted treatments for the disease, according to Diabetes Research WA Executive Director Sherl Westlund.