Insulin-producing cells derived from stem/progenitor cells: therapeutic implications for diabetes mellitus

One of the most common diseases of the pancreas is diabetes mellitus. The current treatment of exogenous insulin supply is not fully capable of achieving tight control of glucose regulation, leading to long-term complications. Hence, recent success in islet transplantation-based therapies for diabetes mellitus and the extreme shortage of pancreatic islets have motivated recent efforts to develop renewable sources of islet-replacement tissue. Of clinical interest, I review the recent progress on stem cell-based strategies for diabetes in view of regenerative medicine.