The role of DNA demethylation in liver to pancreas transdifferentiation.

Background: Insulin producing cells generated by liver cell transdifferentiation, could serve as an attractive source for regenerative medicine. The present study assesses the relationship between DNA methylation pTFs induced liver to pancreas transdifferentiation.

Results: The transdifferentiation process is associated with DNA demethylation, mainly at gene regulatory sites, and with increased expression of these genes.

Phenotypic assessment of liver-derived cell cultures during expansion.

Liver cells represent an attractive source of cells for autologous regenerative medicine. The present study assesses the liver cells' stability during expansion, as a prerequisite for therapeutic use. The human liver cell cultures in this study were propagated efficiently for at least 12 passages.

The effect of liver donors' age, gender and metabolic state on pancreatic lineage activation.

Autologous cells replacement therapy by liver to pancreas transdifferentiation (TD) allows diabetic patients to be also the donors of their own therapeutic tissue. To analyze whether the efficiency of the process is affected by liver donors' heterogeneity with regard to age, gender and the metabolic state.  TD of liver cells derived from nondiabetic and diabetic donors at different ages was characterized at molecular and cellular levels, .

COVID-19 and diabetes mellitus: Unraveling the hypotheses that worsen the prognosis (Review).

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and the caused disease - coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), has affected so far >6,000,000 people worldwide, with variable grades of severity, and has already inflicted >350,000 deaths. SARS-CoV-2 infection seems severely affected by background diseases such as diabetes mellitus and its related complications, that seem to be favoring the most severe manifestations of SARS-CoV-2 and, therefore, require special attention in clinical care units. The present literature review focus on addressing several hypotheses explaining why diabetic patients could develop multi-organ failure in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) infections.