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Umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells are able to undergo differentiation into functional islet-like cells in type 2
Xing-Hua Pan1, Xia Huang2, Guang-Ping Ruan3
1Cell Biological Therapy Center of Kunming General Hospital of Chengdu Military Command, Kunming, Yunnan Province, China; The Nation and Region Integrated Engineering Laboratory of Stem Cell and Immunocyte Biological Technology, Kunming, Yunnan Province, China; Key Laboratory of Translational Medicine of Cell Therapy Technology of Yunnan Province, Kunming, Yunnan, China.
Abstract:
Islet transplantation is arguably one of the most promising strategies to treat patients suffering with diabetes mellitus. However, a combination of a lack of donors and chronic immune rejection limit clinical applications. Here, we evaluated the efficacy of cell therapy using islet-like cells differentiated from umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (UC-MSCs) of tree shrews for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. Enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP) labeled UC-MSCs were directly injected into type 2 diabetic tree shrews, where UC-MSC differentiated into functional islet-like cells and alleviated disease severity, as evidenced by improved biochemical features and reduced concentrations of inflammatory cytokines. We also demonstrated that in vitro culture of UC-MSCs for six days in a high-glucose environment (40 mmol/L or 60 mmol/L glucose) resulted in significant gene methylation. The potency of UC-MSCs differentiated into insulin-secreting cells was attributed to the activation of Notch signal pathways. This study provides evidence that cell therapy of islet-like cells differentiated from UC-MSCs is a feasible, simple and inexpensive approach in the treatment of type 2 diabetes.