The paper ends up with “a five-stage protocol” that takes hES cells through an endoderm route close to normal pancreatic development. Along this path they note NGN3 endocrine step that “has not been reported” before. By the final stage, the cultures hold β-like insulin cells with adult-like insulin levels, β-cell markers and dense secretory granules that, in their word, “contain many cell components critical to β-cell function”, and C-peptide release is regulated to KCl, tolbutamide and nutrient stimuli. Because glucose has little effect, they write that these cells” may resemble immature fetal β-cell” yet still see hES cells as a possible “renewable source of pancreatic β-cells for people with diabetes”.