2. Academic Validation
  3. In vitro expansion of pancreatic islet clusters facilitated by hormones and chemicals

In vitro expansion of pancreatic islet clusters facilitated by hormones and chemicals

  • Cell Discov. 2020 Apr 7;6:20. doi: 10.1038/s41421-020-0159-x.
Jing-Yu Lin  # 1,  Jie Cheng  # 1,  Ya-Qin Du  # 2,  Wei Pan  # 1,  Zhong Zhang 3,  Jin Wang 4,  Jie An 4,  Fan Yang 4,  Yun-Fei Xu 5,  Hui Lin 1,  Wen-Tao An 1,  Jia Wang 6,  Zhao Yang 6,  Ren-Jie Chai 3,  Xue-Ying Sha 2,  Hui-Li Hu 7,  Jin-Peng Sun 2 6,  Xiao Yu 1
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 1Key Laboratory Experimental Teratology of the Ministry of Education and Department of Physiology and Pathophysiology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Shandong University, 250012 Jinan, Shandong China.
  • 2 Department of Physiology and Pathophysiology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Peking University, Key Laboratory of Molecular Cardiovascular Science, Ministry of Education, 100191 Beijing, China.
  • 3 3Key Laboratory for Developmental Genes and Human Disease of the Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, Southeast University, 210096 Nanjing, Jiangsu China.
  • 4 4Department of Pharmacology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Shandong University, 250012 Jinan, Shandong China.
  • 5 5Key Laboratory Experimental Teratology of the Ministry of Education and Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Shandong University School of Medicine, 250012 Jinan, Shandong China.
  • 6 6Key Laboratory Experimental Teratology of the Ministry of Education and Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Shandong University, 250012 Jinan, Shandong China.
  • 7 7The Key Laboratory of Experimental Teratology, Ministry of Education and Department of Genetics, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Shandong University, 250012 Jinan, Shandong China.
  • # Contributed equally.
PMID: 32284878 DOI: 10.1038/s41421-020-0159-x
Abstract

Tissue regeneration, such as pancreatic islet tissue propagation in vitro, could serve as a promising strategy for diabetes therapy and personalised drug testing. However, such a strategy has not been realised yet. Propagation could be divided into two steps, in vitro expansion and repeated passaging. Even the first step of the in vitro islet expansion has not been achieved to date. Here, we describe a method that enables the expansion of islet clusters isolated from pregnant mice or wild-type rats by employing a combination of specific regeneration factors and chemical compounds in vitro. The expanded islet clusters expressed Insulin, glucagon and somatostatin, which are markers corresponding to pancreatic β cells, α cells and δ cells, respectively. These different types of cells grouped together, were spatially organised and functioned similarly to primary islets. Further mechanistic analysis revealed that forskolin in our recipe contributed to renewal and regeneration, whereas exendin-4 was essential for preserving islet cell identity. Our results provide a novel method for the in vitro expansion of islet clusters, which is an important step forward in developing future protocols and media used for islet tissue propagation in vitro. Such method is important for future regenerative diabetes therapies and personalised medicines using large amounts of pancreatic islets derived from the same person.

Keywords

Cell biology; Developmental biology; Stem cells.

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