Studies into human pancreas development

Piper, Karen (2003) Studies into human pancreas development. University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.

Abstract

Complications associated with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) are a major health care problem worldwide.  Although injectable insulin permits a relatively normal lifestyle, it falls a long way short of the perfect treatment for T1DM─it is not a cure.

Pancreatic islet transplantation has proved a promising treatment for T1DA, however, progress has been limited due to a shortage in the supply of cadaveric pancreases.  An exciting alternative to this is stem cell therapy, whereby β cells would be generated in vitro as an unlimited supply for transportation.  In order to achieve these ambitious goals, an in depth understanding of human pancreas development is highly desirable.  The results presented in this thesis aim to provide some of this information.  They are also complimented by initial strategies for human fetal pancreas culture, which is aimed at proliferating and differentiating early epithelial cells into functional β cells.  The rationale underlying this work is presented at the end of chapter 1 and each chapter of results contains an abstract summarising its data.

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