Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine say the breakthrough may lead to new treatments or even a cure for the millions of people affected by the disease.

Lead author Yi Zhang says the technique -- pioneered by Dr. Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University in Japan -- involves reprogramming skin cells into pluripotent stem cells, or cells that can give rise to any other fetal or adult cell type, and then inducing them to differentiate, or transform, into cells that perform a particular function -- in this case, secreting insulin.

"Not only have we shown that we can reprogram skin cells, but we have also demonstrated that these reprogrammed cells can be differentiated into insulin-producing cells which hold great therapeutic potential for diabetes," Zhang says in a statement.

The study is published online in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.