Preparation of insulin-producing cells using the parafollicular cells and attempt to improve insulin secretion in diabetic mice

Research Project

Project/Area Number	24659090
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Research Field	General anatomy (including Histology/Embryology)
Research Institution	Kitasato University
Principal Investigator	MIURA Masaaki 北里大学, 医学部, 講師 (60276053)
Project Period (FY)	2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 2014)
Budget Amount *help	¥3,900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥900,000) Fiscal Year 2014: ¥1,040,000 (Direct Cost: ¥800,000、Indirect Cost: ¥240,000) Fiscal Year 2013: ¥1,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥300,000) Fiscal Year 2012: ¥1,560,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,200,000、Indirect Cost: ¥360,000)
Keywords	傍濾胞細胞 / カルシトニン / インスリン / 膵β細胞 / 再生 / 分化 / Ｃ細胞 / β細胞 / 分化転換 / 鰓後体
Outline of Final Research Achievements	The author discovered that parafollicular cells synthesized insulin to the early stage of the development. Based on this finding, parafollicular cells were examined whether can differentiate into pancreatic β cells. Genes related to differentiation of pancreatic β cells were introduced into cultured parafollicular cells at the early stage of the development. Insulin gene expression were increased 19-fold by introducing MafA and the Pdx1 gene simultaneously. The cultured cells were confirmed to produce insulin by immunostaining. The present result suggested that parafollicular cells is capable of regenerating pancreatic β cells.