The supply chain of human pancreatic β cell lines

Patients with type 1 or type 2 diabetes have an insufficiency in their functional beta cell mass. To advance diabetes treatment and to work toward a cure, a better understanding of how to protect the pancreatic beta cells against autoimmune or metabolic assaults (e.g.. obesity, gestation) will be required. Over the past decades, beta cell protection has been extensively investigated in rodents both in vivo and in vitro using isolated islets or rodent beta cell lines, Transferring these rodent data to humans has long been challenging, at least partly for technical reasons: primary human islet preparations were scarce and functional human beta cell lines were lacking. In 2011, we described a robust protocol of targeted oncogenesis in human fetal pancreas and produced the first functional human beta cell line, and in subsequent years additional lines with specific traits. These cell lines are currently used by more than 150 academic and industrial laboratories worldwide. In this Review, we first explain how we developed the human beta cell lines and why we think we succeeded where others, despite major efforts, did not. Next, we discuss the use of such functional human beta cell lines and share some perspectives on their use to advance diabetes research.