Inside our body is a small but very important organ called the pancreas. One of its main jobs is to make insulin using special cells called beta cells.
Insulin acts like a key, unlocking our cells so sugar from the blood can enter and give our bodies energy. When the body doesn’t make enough insulin, sugar builds up in the blood, which can lead to diabetes.
Now, scientists at Weill Cornell Medicine have discovered something new about beta cells. They found that not all beta cells are the same. Dr. James Lo and his team identified four different types of beta cells and published their results in the journal Nature Cell Biology.
Among the four types, one group, called cluster 1 beta cells, stood out. These cells work harder and better than the others. They make more insulin and are better at breaking down sugar. The scientists called these the “superhero” beta cells. Losing these special cells raises the risk of type 2 diabetes because the body can’t make enough insulin without them.
To find these different beta cells, the researchers used a tool called single-cell transcriptomics. This technique helps scientists study each cell one at a time and see which genes are active.
Genes are like instructions that tell cells what to do. The superhero cells had more active genes that help with making insulin and using sugar. They also had higher levels of a protein called CD63, which made them easier to spot.
What’s exciting is that both mice and humans have these superhero cells, and they work in a similar way. The scientists found that mice with obesity or diabetes had fewer superhero cells. As a result, they made less insulin and had more trouble controlling blood sugar.
But there is hope. When scientists gave diabetic mice more of these superhero beta cells, their blood sugar improved. When they added regular beta cells, it didn’t help as much. This means that in the future, doctors might be able to help people with diabetes by giving them more of these powerful cells.
Dr. Lo and his team are now trying to figure out why these cells disappear in diabetes and how to stop that from happening. They also want to know how diabetes medications affect each type of beta cell. This research could help create better treatments or even ways to prevent diabetes before it starts.
Other studies show that eating healthy foods like whole grains and blueberries and getting enough vitamin D might also help people with diabetes by managing blood pressure and improving overall health.
This discovery about superhero beta cells brings new hope to people with diabetes. It shows how hard scientists are working to understand the disease and find new ways to fight it. Each new finding brings us one step closer to better treatments and, hopefully, a cure.
If you care about diabetes, please read studies about the cooking connection between potatoes and diabetes, and low calorie diets may help reverse type 2 diabetes.
For more health information, please see recent studies about protein power: a new ally in diabetes management, and pineapple and diabetes: A sweet surprise.
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