Production of insulin-produing beta cells

Content provided by the Faculty of the Harvard Medical School

Production of insulin-produing beta cells

Question:

Is there a continual production of insulin-producing beta cells in the body or is there a limit on how many are produced?

Answer:

For many years, it was believed that a person was born with a fixed number of insulin-producing cells and the pancreas could not create new cells if the original ones were destroyed. We now know that this is not the case.

Recently, scientists have discovered methods that can promote new growth of insulin-producing cells in animals. This could potentially lead to therapies that would work in humans. Right now, medication to do this is not available.

In theory, stimulating new growth of insulin-producing cells would be most helpful in type 1 diabetes.

But potentially there is a big problem. Most people with type 1 diabetes have the disease because they have developed antibodies that attack and destroy their own islet cells. So even if more are produced, these cells might be destroyed by those antibodies.

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Last updated:	July 20, 2009

Medical content reviewed by the Faculty of the Harvard Medical School. Harvard Health Publications, Copyright © 2007 by President and Fellows of Harvard College. All rights reserved. Used with permission of StayWell.

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