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Long-term cultured neonatal porcine islet cell monolayers: a potential tissue source for transplant in diabetes
Francesca Mancuso1, Giuseppe Basta, Mario Calvitti
1Department of Internal Medicine (Di.M.I.), University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy.
Background:
The restricted availability of cadaveric human donor pancreases mandates validation of possibly inexhaustible, alternative sources of insulin secretory cells in order to expand islet transplant for the therapy of insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (T1DM).
Methods:
Neonatal pig pancreatic islets (NPI), isolated and purified by our method, were specially cultured until confluent cell monolayers were obtained. Expression of several beta-cell phenotype transcriptional factors, under glucose and other stimuli, were examined throughout 90 days of culture.
Results:
High glucose concentration and glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) were associated with maintenance either of insulin secretory patterns from the incubated cell monolayers, or expression of transcriptional markers associated with beta-cell like phenotypes.
Conclusion:
Morphological and molecular expression of beta-cell markers and products from NPI cell monolayers seem to identify a novel and potentially powerful source of insulin producing cells that might fulfill transplant needs for insulin substitution therapy.