Diseases of the pancreas such as diabetes or pancreatic cancer are often serious and have a major impact on patients. Unfortunately, in the case of pancreatic cancer, there are still no specific and effective treatments available today and the survival rate of patients is very low. In the case of diabetes, new therapies to replace insulin-producing cells are shaping the future of treatments for the care of insulin-dependent patients.
Little is still known about the great complexity and diversity of the cells that make up the pancreas and, more specifically, the cells of the pancreatic ducts that can give rise to tumours. Now a study published in the journal Gastroenterology, carried out by teams from the University of Barcelona and the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), has described - with a very high degree of detail and one by one - the cells that make up the pancreas and its ducts.
The study is led by Meritxell Rovira, head of the Pancreatic Regeneration Group of the UB and IDIBELL, who is a member of the Department of Physiological Sciences of the UB's Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences and the Programme for the Clinical Translation of Regenerative Medicine in Catalonia (P-CMR[C]). The advances obtained thanks to this important study, which has been funded by the CRIS Foundation against cancer, lay the foundations for the project that the researcher is carrying out thanks to the CRIS Excellence 2023 Programme, endowed with €1,250,000.
Fifteen new cell populations identified in the pancreas
The team led by Meritxell Rovira has recognized fifteen new populations of cells in the pancreas, and has defined their behaviour and particular characteristics. "These results are significant: they can be a great starting point to better understand how pancreatic diseases, such as pancreatic cancer, develop", explains the researcher. "But we have also observed that duct cells have great plasticity in culture and could be used as a source of new insulin-producing cells in organoid cultures for regenerative medicine therapies in diabetes", she adds.
The published data will help drive future studies analysing the role of new cell populations in the pancreatic ducts in the regeneration of the organ and the pathogenesis of its exocrine function. "If we know how a disease develops, we can design better, more precise and personalized therapies against it", says Rovira.
