Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have already made their mark in the young field of regenerative medicine. Easily derived from many adult tissues, their therapeutic worth has already been validated for a number of conditions. Unlike embryonic stem cells, neither their procurement nor their use is deemed controversial. Here we review the potential use of MSCs for the treatment of type 1 diabetes mellitus, a devastating chronic disease in which the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas (the β-cells) are the target of an autoimmune process. It has been hypothesized that stem cell-derived β-cells may be used to replenish the islet mass in diabetic patients, making islet transplantation (a form of cell therapy that has already proven effective at clinically restoring normoglycemia) available to millions of prospective patients. Here we review the most current advances in the design and application of protocols for the differentiation of transplantable β-cells, with a special emphasis in analyzing MSC potency according to their tissue of origin. Although no single method appears to be ripe enough for clinical trials yet, recent progress in reprogramming (a biotechnological breakthrough that relativizes the thus far insurmountable barriers between embryonal germ layers) bodes well for the rise of MSCs as a potential weapon of choice to develop personalized therapies for type 1 diabetes.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 7. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 16 July 2026.
All research outputs
#5,714,296
of 27,412,402 outputs
Outputs from Stem Cells Translational Medicine
#626
of 1,654 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#43,185
of 256,068 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Stem Cells Translational Medicine
#4
of 9 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 27,412,402 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 79th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 1,654 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 20.2. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 61% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 256,068 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 83% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 9 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has scored higher than 5 of them.
