Researcher Meri Firpo is exploring how stem cells could be used in diabetes treatments.

In 2008, the University of Minnesota received one of its largest gifts ever with an important challenge attached: cure diabetes.

Best Buy founder Richard Schulze and his family pledged $40 million to rapidly accelerate diabetes research and establish the Schulze Diabetes Institute.

With the gift, researchers in the University received crucial funding that would allow them to capitalize on their strengths in transplantation and stem-cell research.

Transplantation: a major advance that comes with challenges

The University of Minnesota performed the first pancreas transplantation as an advanced treatment for diabetes in 1966 and the first islet-cell transplantation in 1974.

Islets are insulin-producing cells from the pancreas that regulate blood sugar. In people with type 1 diabetes, the body has destroyed its own islet cells. That’s why someone with type 1 diabetes must inject insulin to control his or her blood sugar.

Both transplantation methods eliminate the need for insulin injections—an amazing prospect for people living with type 1 diabetes. However, after either type of transplant, patients must take anti-rejection drugs. The side effects of these drugs are severe enough that only patients with the most debilitating forms of type 1 diabetes usually opt for transplantation.

Another challenge with transplantation is that islet donations must come from deceased organ donors, which are scarce. Researchers at the University are now trying to find new sources for islets, including pig pancreases and stem cells.

Could stem cells solve the problem of islet-cell rejection and quantity?

Stem-cell researcher Meri Firpo, Ph.D., is looking for ways to solve the challenges of islet transplantation. An assistant professor in the Stem Cell Institute and the Division of Endocrinology and Diabetes, Firpo was recruited in 2005 specifically to apply stem-cell research to diabetes.  

Firpo researches the biology of stem cells to understand why islet cells are destroyed in people with diabetes. She also explores how transplantation therapy with human embryonic stem cells could spur islet-cell regeneration.

In recent years, Firpo has begun exploring the use of an alternative source of stem cells to treat diabetes: human skin. The research builds on a 2006 discovery by researchers in Japan and the University of Wisconsin that skin stem cells could be “reprogrammed” to a non-specific state. These reprogrammed cells, called induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, could potentially be manipulated into stem-cell therapies for multiple diseases.  

Firpo wants to find a way to use iPS cells to develop islet cells. Using a person’s own stem cells to develop islet cells may eliminate the problems of rejection-related side effects that come with transplanting islets from donated organs. The approach may also solve the problem of the scarcity of islets available for transplantation.