Researchers have discovered a hormone that triggers the production of insulin-producing cells in mice, a development that could lead to better diabetes treatments in the future. Diabetics are short on insulin---in the case of type 1 diabetes, because their immune system attacks their beta cells (the body's insulin factories); in type 2 diabetes, because their body stops responding to insulin's signals. The latter condition is called insulin resistance. All told, diabetes affects an estimated 366 million people in the world today. Daily insulin shots are a direct, if short-term, way to treat the disease, but researchers at Harvard think they may be onto an even more promising solution: boosting beta cells.
Beta cells reproduce via duplication. When we're babies, these cells are cranking out copies like crazy. But by the time adulthood rolls around, this production process has slowed down almost to a halt, so that less than one half ...
