Transforming Stem Cells into Diabetes Beaters
干细胞对抗糖尿病

Pancreatic type beta cells produced from stem cells can sense glucose, release insulin and treat a mouse model of diabetes.
由干细胞分化而来的β胰腺细胞能侦测血糖水平，从而释放胰岛素并治愈老鼠的糖尿病。

撰文/播音 Christopher Intagliata
翻译 Meatle
审校 邰伦玥

One of the great promises of stem-cell biology is to use a patient’s own cells as a template to build a real, working organ or tissue in the lab. One prime example: a treatment fordiabetes by turning stem cells into working pancreatic beta cells, which release insulin.
干细胞技术的一大运用，就是利用病人的细胞作为模板，在实验室造出一个真正能活体的器官或组织。一个典型的例子是，糖尿病的一种疗法将干细胞转化为功能正常的、能产生胰岛素的β胰腺细胞。

"The existing beta cells that our lab and others had created were 90 percent of the way there. But 90 percent still means not functional." Ron Evans, a molecular biologist at the Salk Institute.
“我们的和其他研究组的实验室现存的β细胞能够达到真实细胞的90%。然而，90%仍然不足以使到这些测试细胞能够正常起效。”索科生物研究所(the Salk Institute)的分子生物学家，龙·埃文斯(Ron Evans)说。

Evans compares the stem-cell-derived beta cells they first made to a darkened room. "If you walk into that room, there may be everything in it that you need to be a complete room, with furniture and chairs and everything else. But it's dark. And the key is: what do you need to turn on the light?"
埃文斯将它们起初制造的β细胞比喻成黑房间。“试想一下，那间房子里有你生活所需的一切，比如像桌子等家具。然而房间里面一片漆黑。问题在于，如何把灯打开。”

That light switch, Evans discovered, is a gene—called estrogen-related receptor gamma. Flip it on, and it activates a genetic circuit that ramps up mitochondria production, powers up the cell, and endows the almost-functional beta cells with the ability to sense glucose and release insulin in response.
埃文斯所发现的“灯开关”是一段被称为雌激素关联受体γ(estrogen-related receptor gamma)的基因。将它启动，就能接通一段基因回路，使到细胞内的线粒体全速运行，从而“点亮整个房间”——这些接近完全的细胞能够察觉到血糖的波动，进而释放出胰岛素。

Evans's team recently used that trick to transform stem cells into beta cells that worked just like they would in a healthy pancreas. When they transplanted those cells into mice with a mouse version of diabetes, blood glucose fell to normal levels in half the rodents. The results are in the journal Cell Metabolism. [Eiji Yoshihara et al, ERRγ Is Required for the Metabolic Maturation of Therapeutically Functional Glucose-Responsive β Cells]
埃文斯的团队使用上述的手法，使到干细胞转化为能像正常胰腺细胞一样工作的β细胞。之后，他们将这些细胞移植到患有糖尿病的小鼠身上，这些接受移植的小鼠有半数血糖恢复了正常。该项研究发表在《细胞代谢》(Cell Metabolism)上。

Next, Evans says he'll replicate the test in diabetic primates. "Primates get diabetes in a fashion that's very similar to people. So if it works in a primate, very high probability that it's going to work in people." If it does, we might someday replace a shot of insulin with a shot of cells.
埃文斯认为，下一步他将在灵长类身上重复这个实验。“灵长类患上糖尿病的方式与人类相当类似。因此如果这种疗法在灵长类中行得通，那么这种疗法也有相当大的可能性治愈人类。”若是这样，治疗糖尿病人，有朝一日只需注射一剂细胞，而不是胰岛素。