Engineering islets: Lessons from stem cells and embryonic development

The attempts to understand pancreatic cell-type specification and apply this information to direct the differentiation of insulin-producing cells from various sources have produced significant advances in the past few years. The steady progress of ES and stem/progenitor cell isolation, growth, and manipulation, combined with new technologies for genetic manipulations and lineage tracing, and a greater understanding of the endogenous factors required for β-cell differentiation and expansion have made the identification of alternative sources of insulin-producing cells a possibility. These fields are still relatively young, however, continued collaboration efforts between researchers of many different scientific disciplines will allow the common goal of generating alternative sources of β cells for therapeutic purposes to be achieved.