Making ES cells into Beta Cells that Work !

Beijing, China -

Treatment of diabetes by stem cell derived beta calls is an attractive prospect. Jiang et al (In vitro derivation of functional insulin-producing cells from human embryonic stem cells. Cell Res. 2007 Apr 10) recently reported a serum free method of inducing ES cells to differentiate into cells capable of producing insulin in vitro and in vivo.

The investigators treated human ES cells with Activin A in order to induce committment to definative endoderm. Success of committment to definative endoderm was reported based on expression of the markers Sox17 and Brachyury.

Pancreatic differentiation of the definative endoderm tissue was achieved by treatment with retinoic acid. The success of pancreatic differentiation was judged based on expression of pdx1 and hlxb9.

Maturation into islet-like cells was accomplished by culture in bFGF and nicotinamide. The success of differentiation was assessed by expression of markers found on islets such as C-peptide, insulin, glucagon and glut2.