Pancreatic Stem Cells

From a clinical perspective, the pancreas is an important focus of stem cell research, because it is an attractive target for cell replacement therapy. Insulin-producing β-cells in the pancreatic islets of Langerhans are destroyed by autoimmune attack in Type 1 diabetes and self-renewing stem cells might provide β-cells for transplantation. From a developmental biology perspective, the role of stem cells in the pancreas is a fascinating problem. New cells are produced during adulthood, but their origin is not clear. Although much focus is on β-cell progenitors, it is not known what role such cells play during pancreas maintenance and regeneration, or whether the adult pancreas contains a population of true stem cells. In this chapter, we review evidence for the existence and identity of pancreatic progenitor and stem cells and describe the criteria for experimental demonstration of such cells.