Generation of functional insulin-producing endocrine cells and clusters from human pluripotent stem cells

Abstract

Diabetes is caused by the defective insulin secretion that leads to hyperglycemic condition. The considerable loss of pancreatic beta cells is the major reason of diabetes which makes the patients to depend on the exogenous supply of islets. The limited availability of cadaveric islet donors demands the need of other islet sources. Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are clonogenic cells capable of both self renewal and multi-lineage differentiation. Differentiating hESCs to insulin secreting pancreatic islet cells would therefore be of great importance in the studying and treatment of diabetes. This study focuses on the differentiation process of the human pluripotent stem cells to insulin producing cells and clusters. The detailed characterization of fully differentiated cells indicated the functionality of stem cell derived islets hence increasing the hope of diabetes reversal. The differentiation of the induced pluripotent stem cells to insulin producing cells which could open ways to autologous insulin-producing cells and also various other disease modeling and drug-screening strategies.