This is a unique book containing comprehensive coverage of stem cell therapies for the treatment of diabetes. The greatest enthusiasm for treatment lies in the possibility of using pluripotent stem cells to overcome the limits of islet transplantation. Organized into six parts, this book covers the development and differentiation of beta cells, bioengineering, immunoescape, preclinical model and translational approaches, beta cell replacement, and disease modeling. This is an ideal book for scientists, researchers, and clinicians working in the area of stem cell technology in the treatment of diabetes.

The Advanced Methods series is intended for advanced undergraduates, graduate students and established research scientists. Titles in the series are designed to cover current important areas of research in life sciences, and include both theoretical background and detailed protocols. The aim is to give researchers sufficient theory, supported by references, to take the given protocols and adapt them to their particular experimental systems. Since the first successful isolation and cultivation of human embryonic stem cells at the University of Wisconsin - Madison in 1998, there have been high levels of both interest and controversy in this area of research. This book provides a concise overview of an exciting field, covering the characteristics of both human embryonic stem cells and pluripotent stem cells from other human cell lineages. The following chapters describe state-of-the-art differentiation and characterization of specific ectoderm, mesoderm and endoderm-derived lineages from human embryonic stem cells, emphasizing how these can be used to study human developmental mechanisms. A further chapter discusses genetic manipulation of human ES cells. The concluding section covers therapeutic applications of human ES cells, as well as addresses the ethical and legal issues that this research has raised.