Review 10.1172/JCI129484
1INSERM U1016, Institut Cochin, Université Paris Descartes, Paris, France.
2Beta Cell Neogenesis (BENE), Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium.
Address correspondence to: Raphael Scharfmann, Institut Cochin, INSERM U1016, 123 bd du Port-Royal, 75014 Paris, France. Phone: 33.1.76.53.55.68; Email: raphael.scharfmann@inserm.fr.
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1INSERM U1016, Institut Cochin, Université Paris Descartes, Paris, France.
2Beta Cell Neogenesis (BENE), Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium.
Address correspondence to: Raphael Scharfmann, Institut Cochin, INSERM U1016, 123 bd du Port-Royal, 75014 Paris, France. Phone: 33.1.76.53.55.68; Email: raphael.scharfmann@inserm.fr.
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Staels, W.
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1INSERM U1016, Institut Cochin, Université Paris Descartes, Paris, France.
2Beta Cell Neogenesis (BENE), Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium.
Address correspondence to: Raphael Scharfmann, Institut Cochin, INSERM U1016, 123 bd du Port-Royal, 75014 Paris, France. Phone: 33.1.76.53.55.68; Email: raphael.scharfmann@inserm.fr.
Find articles by Albagli, O. in: JCI | PubMed | Google Scholar
First published September 3, 2019 - More info
Patients with type 1 or type 2 diabetes have an insufficiency in their functional β cell mass. To advance diabetes treatment and to work toward a cure, a better understanding of how to protect the pancreatic β cells against autoimmune or metabolic assaults (e.g., obesity, gestation) will be required. Over the past decades, β cell protection has been extensively investigated in rodents both in vivo and in vitro using isolated islets or rodent β cell lines. Transferring these rodent data to humans has long been challenging, at least partly for technical reasons: primary human islet preparations were scarce and functional human β cell lines were lacking. In 2011, we described a robust protocol of targeted oncogenesis in human fetal pancreas and produced the first functional human β cell line, and in subsequent years additional lines with specific traits. These cell lines are currently used by more than 150 academic and industrial laboratories worldwide. In this Review, we first explain how we developed the human β cell lines and why we think we succeeded where others, despite major efforts, did not. Next, we discuss the use of such functional human β cell lines and share some perspectives on their use to advance diabetes research.
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