Is there any way to keep the database from a debug apk to use in the release apk?

I have five people testing my app. It was signed with a debug key.

Now, i want to release it, so i signed it with my keystore. Android can't just upgrade the installation because of that (I tought i could do that), so i have to uninstall the debug apk to install the release version. Is there any way to keep the database from the debug apk to use on the release apk?