SCIENCE NEWS - Insulin-producing cells can renegerate

Researchers from the University of Geneva in Switzerland have published a report in Nature on April 4 saying that Alpha cells in the pancreas can spontaneously transform into insulin-producing beta cells. The study, done in mice, is the first to reveal the pancreas’s ability to regenerate missing cells. Scientists were surprised to find that new beta cells arose from alpha cells in the pancreas, rather than stem cells.

If the discovery translates to people, scientists may one day be able to coax type 1 diabetics’ own alpha cells into replacing insulin-producing cells. Type 1 diabetes, also known as juvenile diabetes, results when the immune system destroys beta cells in the pancreas. People with the disease must take lifelong injections of insulin in order to keep blood sugar levels from rising too high.

Even if human pancreases can perform the alpha to beta conversion, the immune system in type 1 diabetics would kill the newly transformed cells unless researchers could figure out how to stop the immune system attack and reduce inflammation in the pancreas that accompanies diabetes. Efforts to control the immune system could give the pancreases of type 1 diabetic patients a chance to recover at least some function. “The life of diabetics would change even if the pancreas is only able to produce 1 or 2 percent of normal insulin levels,” say researchers.

The team is now trying to determine if older mice retain the regenerative capacity seen in the young mice used in the study and which signal tells alpha cells to begin transforming into beta cells.

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BIOBASICS Question of the Week?

What are leguminous crops? Explain and Exemplify.

BIOBASICS Solution: The term 'Legume' is derived from the Latin word legumen (with the same meaning as the English term), which is in turn believed to come from the verb legere "to gather." A legume in botanical writing is a plant in the family Fabaceae (or Leguminosae), or a fruit of these specific plants.A common name for this type of fruit is a pod, although "pod" is also applied to a few other fruit types, such as vanilla. A pulse is an annual leguminous crop yielding from one to twelve grains or seeds of variable size, shape, and color within a pod. Pulses are used for food and animal feed. The term "pulse", as used by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), is reserved for crops harvested solely for the dry grain. This excludes green beans and green peas, which are considered vegetable crops. Also excluded are crops that are mainly grown for oil extraction (oilseeds like soybeans and peanuts), and crops which are used exclusively for sowing (clovers, alfalfa).

Legumes are rich in essential amino acid lysine but contain relatively low quantities of the methionine. Since grains like Wheat or Rice are poor in lysine content and high in methionine, so grains are usually teamed with legumes in vegetarian diets e.g. Dal and Rice or Wheat bread in India.

Well-known legumes include alfalfa, clover, peas, beans, lentils, soy, and peanuts.