Skin graft gene therapy ‘could halt diabetes’

A GENETICALLY engineered skin transplant which could reverse diabetes and obesity could soon be trialled in humans.

Researchers in the US have shown it is possible to genetically modify human skin so that it produces a hormone that triggers insulin production and controls blood sugar levels.

When transplanted into mice, the animals were diabetes-free for four months without the need for injections. Animals fed on a highfat diet also did not put on any weight.

“This paper is exciting for us because it is the first time we show engineered skin grafts can survive long term in mice, and we expect that in the near future this approach can be used as a safe option for the treatment of human patients,” said senior author Dr Xiaoyang Wu, a stem cell biologist at the University of Chicago Ben May Department for Cancer Research. “We focus on diabetes because it’s a common disease, but this is a potential strategy to treat a range of metabolic and genetic conditions.”

The team is hoping that one day doctors will be able to take skin stem cells from a patient, genetically modify them to produce the insulinboosting hormone, and then grow them into tissue which can be transplanted.

It is a similar type of procedure which is used for burns victims, but with the inclusion of a modified gene.

The researchers inserted the gene for glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP1), a hormone that stimulates the pancreas to secrete insulin.

Using CRISPR, a tool which acts like molecular scissors, the team inserted one mutation which extended the hormone’s life in the blood stream, and fused the modified gene to an antibody fragment so that it would circulate in the blood stream longer.

The extra insulin removes excessive glucose from the bloodstream, preventing the complications of diabetes. GLP1 also reduces appetite, and so prevents weight gain.

Around 61 per cent of adults are overweight or obese and the average weight of Britons has risen steadily since the Seventies. There are 3.9million people with diabetes in the UK. The research was published in the journal Cell Stem Cell.