Sperm could be used in future diabetes treatments
December 13, 2010
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Toronto Star Staff
Sperm just got more useful.
Turns out these microscopic swimmers can be turned into insulin creating cells, which could one day be used in the treatment of type 1 diabetes.
Scientist at Georgetown University Medical Centre in Washington DC made the discovery when they removed spermatogonial stem cells (SSC), the cells that precede sperm, from dead organ donors.
“We found that once you take these cells out of the testes niche, they get confused, and will form all three germ layers within several weeks.” Georgetown Associate Professor G. Ian Gallicano said in the Guardian. “These are true, pluripotent stem cells.”
Once removed from the testes, the SSCs were transformed into beta-islet cells, which produce insulin and are normally found in the pancreas. They were then injected into mice that suffered from diabetes. After the treatment the mice were able to successfully regulate their blood sugar levels.
While the research is promising, it has not yet yielded similar results in humans.
“No stem cells, adult or embryonic, have been induced to secrete enough insulin yet to cure diabetes in humans, but we know SSCs have the potential to do what we want them to do, and we know how to improve their yield,” said Gallicano.
The research offers the possibility of a man’s own tissue being used to treat his diabetes, over-coming problems that arise with existing treatments.
“This method of obtaining [beta]-islet-like cells solves the problem of immune rejection in male diabetes patients, as treatment based on this research would be autograft, and the cells would be recognized as 'self',” wrote Gallicano an abstract about his research.
Diabetes is caused when insulin producing cells in the pancreas are destroyed. It is estimated around 900,000 Canadians suffer from type 1 diabetes. Current treatments frequently involve daily insulin injections.
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