Insulin-producing cells

There was a great poster today on the fact that there seem to be cells producing insulin in the pancreas even in people with long-standing type 1 diabetes. The study looked at 42 people and obtained sections of their pancreas upon death. In 90% of those people, insulin-producing cells were still present. This comes as a surprise since most people feel that with type 1 diabetes all of the insulin-producing cells are wiped out. But in fact some are still there making insulin.

If we can figure out a way for those cells to divide faster, or prevent the auto-immune destruction that targets these cells, we could get diabetes cured. It's encouraging to think that we don't necessarily have to rely on transplants alone to cure this terrible disease.