科学美国人60秒:Transforming Stem Cells into Diabetes Beaters

One of the great promises of stem-cell biology is to use a patient’s own cells as a template to build a real, working organ or tissue in the lab. One prime example: a treatment for diabetes by turning stem cells into working pancreatic beta cells, which release insulin.
干细胞生物学的前途之一就是利用病人自己的细胞作为模板在实验室生成实际、工作的器官或组织。典型的例子：将干细胞转化为释放胰岛素的胰腺β细胞，用于治疗糖尿病。

"The existing beta cells that our lab and others had created were 90 percent of the way there. But 90 percent still means not functional." Ron Evans, a molecular biologist at the Salk Institute.
“实验室以及其他场所现存的β细胞，约有90%都是利用这种方式生成。但是也有90%不能正常工作。”罗恩·埃文斯，是索尔克研究所的分子生物学家。

Evans compares the stem-cell-derived beta cells they first made to a darkened room. "If you walk into that room, there may be everything in it that you need to be a complete room, with furniture and chairs and everything else. But it's dark. And the key is: what do you need to turn on the light?"
埃文斯将他们首次利用干细胞生成β细胞比作为一个黑暗的房间。“你走进那间房间，那里的东西应有尽有，有家具、椅子还有其他别的东西。但是房间是黑的。问题的关键是，：“你需要什么才可以打开灯呢?”

That light switch, Evans discovered, is a gene—called estrogen-related receptor gamma. Flip it on, and it activates a genetic circuit that ramps up mitochondria production, powers up the cell, and endows the almost-functional beta cells with the ability to sense glucose and release insulin in response.
灯亮了，埃文斯发现，打开灯的是与雄性激素有关的感受器γ基因。打开γ，其会激活基因电路，基因电路可以加大线粒体产量、为细胞提供能量、同时使功能细胞β细胞有感受葡萄糖含量和释放胰岛素的能力。

Evans's team recently used that trick to transform stem cells into beta cells that worked just like they would in a healthy pancreas. When they transplanted those cells into mice with a mouse version of diabetes, blood glucose fell to normal levels in half the rodents. The results are in the journal Cell Metabolism.
最近，埃文斯的团队利用这种办法将干细胞转化成β细胞，生成的β细胞可以在健康的胰腺内工作。当他们将这些细胞移植入有糖尿病老鼠的体内后，有一半老鼠的体内葡萄糖含量降低至正常水平。该研究结果发表在《细胞新陈代谢》杂志上。

Next, Evans says he'll replicate the test in diabetic primates. "Primates get diabetes in a fashion that's very similar to people. So if it works in a primate, very high probability that it's going to work in people." If it does, we might someday replace a shot of insulin with a shot of cells.
接下来，埃文斯表示自己会在糖尿病灵长类动物体内复制该实验。“灵长类动物的糖尿病的种类与人类非常的相似。如果该实验在灵长类动物体内成功，则在人体成功几率则非常高。”这样的话，在未来的某一天，我们就可以用植入细胞取代胰岛素注释来治疗糖尿病。