1755-P: EndoC-ßH5 Is a Storable and Ready-to-Use Human Pancreatic Beta Cell That Can Model Type 1 and 2 Diabetes

Abstract

EndoC-βH5 is a newly developed human pancreatic beta cell model and an optimized version among the EndoC-βH (EndoC-βH1/2/3) family. EndoC-βH5 cells are storable and ready-to-use and they robustly and reproducibly secrete insulin in response to glucose and incretins across experiments and laboratories. Specifically, they dose dependently respond to physiological concentrations of glucose. In addition, their response to GLP-1 and GIP receptor agonists is also highly reproducible and dose-dependent. Given the continuously increasing number of diabetes patients worldwide, the need for physiologically relevant human cellular models is greater than ever and EndoC-βH5 cells represent a novel human pancreatic beta cell solution that can help developing human diabetes models and drug screening and validation assays. In this study, we are developing pathological and drug screening models. EndoC-βH5 cells are sensitive to palmitate/high glucose as well as cytokine induced cell loss, recapitulating hallmarks of T2D. In addition, we evaluated impairment of insulin secretion and ER stress in these contexts in order to assess the mechanistic relevance of the models. We then addressed T1D modeling. We generated HLA-A2 expressing EndoC-βH5 cells and evaluated HLA-A2 alloreactive T lymphocyte activation and diabetogenic T lymphocyte induced cytotoxicity. Finally, we determined that EndoC-βH5 cells express functional glucagon (GCG) receptor, which contributes to the modulation of glucose induced insulin secretion, highlighting the potential of EndoC-βH5 as a model to study dual and triple GLP-1/GIP/GCG receptor agonists in a reproducible human cellular model. Overall, EndoC-βH5 cells appear to be a powerful tool to develop Type 1/2 diabetes and drug discovery models. Disclosure H.Olleik: None. B.Blanchi: Employee; Human Cell Design.