Researchers found that silencing the ALDH3B2 gene can encourage pancreatic ductal cells to become insulin-producing beta-like cells. The discovery could offer a new diabetes treatment by reprogramming cells already present in the pancreas, potentially avoiding the need to transplant laboratory-grown cells.

In human cells, disabling ALDH3B2 increased the rate of beta-like transformation from below 1% to about 8.5%. When transplanted into diabetic mice, the engineered cells produced human insulin and reduced blood glucose to near-normal levels for six weeks, although researchers still need to understand the mechanism and develop ways to target only pancreatic cells safely.