Lineage conversion of mouse fibroblasts to pancreatic α-cells

Connective tissue cells can be transformed into pancreatic-like cells that could be used to study and perhaps to treat type 1 diabetes. Lijian Hui at the Institutes for Biological Sciences, Shanghai, and Yongquan Shi at the Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, with colleagues elsewhere in China and Canada, achieved the conversion using mouse fibroblast cells. Altering the activity of fibroblast cell genes generated cells with key similarities to pancreatic cells called alpha cells. The alpha cells support the activity of the beta cells that produce insulin, which is deficient in diabetes. The role of alpha cells in diabetes and their clinical potential remains unclear, partly due to difficulties in obtaining mature cells to study. If the resulting insights are applicable to humans, they may allow better understanding of alpha cell activity in health and disease.