Using Skin Cells to Model Diabetes in Humans

Process to create and use induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) for disease modeling.

Image Source: http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/stemcells/quickref/ips-cells.jpg

Reference link: https://www.eveningexpress.co.uk/news/scotland/diabetes-research-scientists-use-human-skin-cells-to-cut-down-on-animal-testing/

Study in a Sentence: Using human skin cells from a tissue bank at Glasgow Caledonian University, researchers created induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) to generate wound healing skin models from diabetic and non-diabetic patients.

Healthy for Humans: The model created in this study can be used to understand why diabetic patients have difficulty with wound healing and controlling skin infections. The iPS cells can also be used to generate many other human cell types to test new drug candidates for diabetic patients or study the links between diabetes and other diseases like Alzheimer’s.

Redefining Research: This human-based approach to model diseases can help to reduce or replace the need to use animals for disease modeling and drug testing. The tissue bank overcomes a resource obstacle in this method, making it more accessible to all scientists.