Exploration of long-term expansion methods for pancreatic islets

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 22K20925
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: 0904:Internal medicine of the bio-information integration and related fields
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: Hirano Michitada 東京大学, 大学院医学系研究科(医学部), 客員研究員 (10965726)
• Project Period (FY): 2022-08-31 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: リプログラミング / 糖尿病 / MYCL / 再生医療 / 膵島

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The number of patients with diabetes worldwide continues to increase rapidly due to changes in lifestyle and social environment. Although islet transplantation is the ideal approach to improve diabetes, it is not widely common as a treatment due to shortage of donors. In previous report, we focused on the MYC family genes, and showed that the induction of MYCL alone provokes the endogenous expansion of functional INS-producing cells through the division of mature β cells.

In this study, we focused on the metabolic mechanisms that are changed in the proliferative process. It was showed that glucose stimulation with MYCL expression induced drastic proliferation both in vivo and in vitro. In particular, we found that insulin-producing cells were dominantly proliferated in this condition. In the future, this expandable approach of mature islet cells represents a potential therapeutic approach for diabetes.

Free Research Field

動物実験学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

糖尿病根治を目指した膵島移植治療の大きな課題は機能性の高い膵島の安定供給にある。 研究代表者は以前に世界で初めて機能的な膵島細胞の増幅に成功している。当時は膵島細胞の長期培養は困難であったが、本研究での培養環境の検討や増殖期膵島細胞の特性を解析することで、その問題点が大きく改善された。成熟膵島細胞の増幅誘導方法を最適化し、効率的かつ永続的な膵島増幅技術を開発することは、糖尿病根治を目指した再生医療の発展に意義のある研究であると言える。