development of new therapeutic approach to diabetes mellitus using human pancreatic duct cells

2010 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20591042
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Metabolomics
• Research Institution: University of Tsukuba
• Principal Investigator: YATOH Shigeru University of Tsukuba, 大学院・人間総合科学研究科, 講師 (50451703)
• Project Period (FY): 2008 – 2010
• Keywords: インスリン / 再生医療 / 膵島

Research Abstract

We tried to induce human pancreatic duct cells into insulin-producing cells, which can be used to treat diabetic patients. Though duct cell fraction is got when islet transplantation, it is usually thrown away. As a result of our study to evaluate various factors and conditions to induce differentiation, it was suggested that glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) increased insulin-producing cells. Furthermore, expression of neurogenin-3 (ngn-3) was elevated in this process of differentiation. This result suggested that the process might mimic physiological differentiation because transient expression of ngn-3 was observed when stem/progenitor cells were induced into mature pancreatic B cells.