The Study Of Getting Insulin Secreting Cells From Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells For Transplantation

Diabetes afflicts millions of people in the world and is responsible for untold morbidity. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disorder in which the insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreatic islets of Langerhans are selectively destroyed. Despite significant improvements in monitoring and administration, insulin therapy cannot fully normalize glucose homeostasis at the present time. Beta-cell replacement therapy by pancreatic islet transplantation has become a promising treatment for type 1 diabetes. However, the limited supply of human islet tissue prevents this therapy from being widely used to treat the patients with type 1 diabetes. We hope to find a new way to deal with the shortage of beta cells for transplantation.Human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) are thought to be multipotent cells, which are present in adult marrow, that can replicate as undifferentiated cells and that have the potential to differentiate into adipocytes, osteoblasts, chondrocytes, tenocytes, myocytes, and hematopoietic-supporting stroma. Within the past several years, MSCs have been explored as vehicles for both cell therapy and gene therapy. They have been used to perform transfection with viral vectors. They have several characteristics that make them potentially useful for cell and gene therapy. Therefore, gene-engineered MSCs may be an effective vehicle for therapy of type 1 diabetes.In the present study, hMSCs were isolated from healthy volunteer donors and expanded in vitro, and then they were induced to differentiate intoβcells under a certain cultured condition in vitro. On the other hand, human insulin gene was transferred to them by using a retrovirus vector pLNCX. The hMSCs transfected with insulin gene can steadily express insulin and secrete it out of the cells. The gene-engineered hMSC can control diabetes of STZ induced diabetic SD rat.The whole study comprises four parts:...