STEM CELL therapy and Diabetes

Abstract

Diabetes is the most prevailing disease with progressive incidence worldwide. To the moment, there is no permanent treatment available for diabetes. Hopefully, stem cell-derived islets may likely be the future therapy. However, the field has limited capability to generate beta-like cells with both phenotypic maturation and functional glucose stimulated insulin secretion that is like primary human islets. Several promising approaches to cure diabetes are to use Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) from perinatal tissues or human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs), including embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and human induced PCSs (hiPSCs). It is also crucial to establish a reliable method of delivering the cells to patients ensuring rapid in-vivo engraftment and function. Overcoming these barriers to beta cell differentiation and transplantation will be key to bring this dream to the clinic. Much research reported the generation of stem cell-derived beta-like cells expressing key maturation genes and capable of dynamic glucose-responsive insulin secretion. Other have investigated the potential of vascularized transplant scaffolds, as well as gas chamber to support beta cell survival and function following transplantation. Here, we summarize recent advances in the differentiation of MSCs and hPSCs into pancreatic beta cells. The generation of stem cell-derived islets with functional glucose stimulated insulin secretion has brought the field closer to clinical translation, but still the challenges for the need of improving their insulin content and secretory capacity.