Efficient production of bioactive insulin from human epidermal keratinocytes and tissue-engineered skin substitutes: implications for treatment of diabetes.

Despite many years of research, daily insulin injections remain the gold standard for diabetes treatment. Gene therapy may provide an alternative strategy by imparting the ability to secrete insulin from an ectopic site. The epidermis is a self-renewing tissue that is easily accessible and can provide large numbers of autologous cells to generate insulin-secreting skin substitutes.