Recently, Quinn Peterson and colleagues from Mayo Clinic, USA, discovered a method for making human alpha cells from cultures of immature stem cells. This work was recently published in Stem Cell Reports. These stem cell-derived alpha cells very closely resembled pancreas-derived alpha cells and secreted comparable levels of glucagon. Importantly, like alpha cells in diabetic patients, the stem cell-derived alpha cells responded to culture conditions mimicking a diabetic environment with elevated glucagon secretion and dysregulation of alpha cell gene expression and physiology. Encouragingly, abnormal glucagon secretion of these cells was reversed by a drug called Sunitinib (a clinically approved anti-cancer drug). The human alpha cells described in this research will be a useful model to understand diabetic alpha cell dysfunction and to screen for new therapeutics.  

The critical pathway could have implications for immune system response to viral and other threats - particularly cancer.

A study by the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) has discovered that the shortage of the p53 protein in animal models triggers the formation of colorectal tumours

The findings pave the way to develop colon cancer prevention strategies

The study has been published in Nature Communications