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Frog clue to diabetes cure
Daily Telegraph
13 September 2006
SCIENTISTS are closer to developing a cure for diabetes after studying the embryos of frogs.
Research has found a protein in the African clawed frog can be used to help stem cells grow into new pancreatic cells.
It brings hope for those who have the condition, whose faulty cells prevent the body from processing sugar correctly.
Scientists at the University of Edinburgh's Institute for Stem Cell Research showed the protein Wnt is crucial in setting up the part of the embryo which forms the pancreas and the liver.
It could be used to direct embryonic stem cells into those organs' pure anterior endoderm cells.
This would be the first step in obtaining insulin-producing cells of the pancreas in the lab.
Research leader Josh Brickman said: "We believe that our findings tell us that these cells ... can be used to make both liver and pancreas cells."
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