Using Skin Cells to Model Diabetes in Humans

Using human skin cells from a tissue bank at Glasgow Caledonian University, researchers created induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) to generate wound healing skin models from diabetic and nondiabetic patients.

The model created in this study can be used to understand why diabetic patients have difficulty with wound healing and controlling skin infections. The iPS cells can also be used to generate many other human cell types to test new drug candidates for diabetic patients or study the links between diabetes and other diseases like Alzheimer’s.