Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jun 7, 2015; 21(21): 6582-6590
Published online Jun 7, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i21.6582
Transplantation of insulin-producing cells to treat diabetic rats after 90% pancreatectomy
Ya-Bin Yu, Jian-Min Bian, Dian-Hua Gu
Ya-Bin Yu, Dian-Hua Gu, Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Huai’an First People’s Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Huai’an 223300, Jiangsu Province, China
Jian-Min Bian, Department of General Surgery, Nanjing First Hospital Affiliated to Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210006, Jiangsu Province, China
Author contributions: Gu DH designed the research; Yu YB performed the research and wrote the paper; Bian JM contributed new reagents/analytic tools; Yu YB and Bian JM analyzed the data.
Ethics approval: The study was reviewed and approved by the Huai’an First People’s Hospital Institutional Review Board.
Institutional animal care and use committee: All procedures involving animals were reviewed and approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of the Nanjing First Hospital Affiliated to Nanjing Medical University (IACUC protocol number: SYXK-2009-0015).
Conflict-of-interest: We declare that we have no conflict of interest.
Data sharing: Technical appendix, statistical code, and dataset available from the corresponding author at 531665908@qq.com. Participants gave informed consent for data sharing.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Dian-Hua Gu, MD, Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Huai’an First People’s Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, No. 140 Hanzhong Road, Huai’an 223300, Jiangsu Province, China. 531665908@qq.com
Telephone: +86-517-84907166 Fax: +86-517-84907166
Received: November 1, 2014
Peer-review started: November 3, 2014
First decision: November 26, 2014
Revised: December 18, 2015
Accepted: February 11, 2015
Article in press: February 11, 2015
Published online: June 7, 2015
Abstract

AIM: To investigate the effects of transplantation of insulin-producing cells (IPCs) in the treatment of diabetic rats after 90% pancreatectomy.

METHODS: Human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (UCMSCs) were isolated and induced into IPCs using differentiation medium. Differentiated cells were examined by dithizone (DTZ) staining, reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and real-time RT-PCR. C-peptide release, both spontaneously and after glucose challenge, was measured by ELISA. IPCs were then transplanted into Sprague-Dawley rats after 90% pancreatectomy and blood glucose levels and body weight were measured.

RESULTS: The differentiated cells were positive for DTZ staining and expressed pancreatic β-cell related genes. C-peptide release by the differentiated cells increased after glucose challenge (380.6 ± 15.32 pmol/L vs 272.4 ± 15.32 pmol/L, P < 0.05). Further, in the cell transplantation group, blood sugar levels were significantly lower than in the sham group 2 wk after transplantation (18.7 ± 2.5 mmol/L vs 25.8 ± 1.25 mmol/L, P < 0.05). Glucose tolerance tests showed that 45 min after intraperitoneal glucose injection, blood glucose levels were significantly lower on day 56 after transplantation of IPCs (12.5 ± 4.7 mmol/L vs 42.2 ± 9.3 mmol/L, P < 0.05).

CONCLUSION: Our results show that UCMSCs can differentiate into islet-like cells in vitro under certain conditions, which can function as IPCs both in vivo and in vitro.

Keywords: Human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells, 90% pancreatectomy, Diabetic mellitus

Core tip: It is well known that islet transplantation can decrease the morbidity related to diabetes mellitus (DM) after total pancreatectomy (TP); however, islet shortage limits its application. To solve the islet shortage problem, we tried to induce mesenchymal stem cells isolated from human Wharton’s jelly to differentiate into insulin-producing cells (IPCs) in this study. To imitate the pathophysiological status of diabetic patients after TP, we used Sprague-Dawley rats after 90% pancreatectomy as a model of type 1 DM. We for the first time tested the possible curative effects of transplanting IPCs differentiated from umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells into the model rats.