A few days ago, someone asked me, “How many beta cells do we have?” Based on the literature, we have “1 billion” insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. If we lose 50% of them, we may have symptoms of diabetes. So to provide a cure for diabetes, we need to create “1 billion” beta cells using stem cells for each patient. We also need to stop beta cell dysfunction and death. In Wolfram syndrome, beta cell loss is probably mediated by dysregulated intra-cellular calcium homeostasis. So we are trying to fix this using small molecules (i.e., drugs).
Thank you for reading this blog. I hope you will have a wonderful Saturday. I am sending kind thoughts toward you.
Kindly,
Fumi Urano