The converted liver

2003/03/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Medikuntza

British researchers have succeeded in converting hepatic cells from tadpoles into sand cells and have done the same in a laboratory with human cells. To achieve this, they have introduced into hepatic cells a gene that leads them to the area: Gene Pdx1. In fact, in the development of the embryo, liver and sand cells grow from a similar tissue, an essential gene for the development of sand cells.

It seems that these studies have opened a new way to cure diabetes: perhaps you can get a part of the liver of diabetics to become a still healthy part capable of producing insulin.

However, there is still a long way to go: the researchers themselves have recognized that the area cells they have obtained are, first of all, functional. Then, it is about demonstrating that they are able to cure mice with diabetes and, finally, to test it in humans.