Diabetes researchers at Vanderbilt University have discovered key cells in the pancreas that secrete insulin actually have the capacity to regenerate.

Researchers surprisingly observed a “burst of proliferation of pre-existing beta cells” aided by a key bone-marrow component “recruited to the site of beta cell injury,” according to an article posted online in the scientific journal Cell Metabolism.

The study has important ramifications, Vanderbilt said in a press release, because scientists may some day be able to stem the rising incidence of diabetes by understanding how this regeneration occurs.

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