Wang Weiwei, Jin Sha, Ye Kaiming
1 Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Arkansas , Fayetteville, Arkansas.
2 Department of Biomedical Engineering, Center of Biomanufacturing for Regenerative Medicine, Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science, Binghamton University, State University of New York (SUNY) , Binghamton, New York.
Stem Cells Dev. 2017 Mar 15;26(6):394-404. doi: 10.1089/scd.2016.0115. Epub 2017 Jan 11.
Success in the differentiating human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) into insulin-secreting β cells raises new hopes for diabetes treatment. In this work, we demonstrated the feasibility of developing islet organoids from hESCs within biomimetic 3D scaffolds. We showed that such a 3D microenvironment is critical to the generation of pancreatic endoderm and endocrine from hESCs. The organoids formed consisted of pancreatic α, β, δ, and pancreatic polypeptide (PP) cells. A high-level co-expression of PDX1, NKX6.1, and NGN3 in these cells suggests the characteristics of pancreatic β cells. More importantly, most insulin-secreting cells generated did not express glucagon, somatostatin, or PP. The expression of mature β cell marker genes such as Pdx1, Ngn3, Insulin, MafA, and Glut2 was detected in these 3D-induced cell clusters. A high-level expression of C-peptide confirmed the de novo endogenous insulin production in these 3D induced cells. Insulin-secretory granules, an indication of β cell maturity, were detected in these cells as well. Glucose challenging experiments suggested that these cells are sensitive to glucose levels due to their elevated maturity. Exposing the cells to a high concentration of glucose induced a sharp increase in insulin secretion.
将人类胚胎干细胞(hESCs)成功分化为分泌胰岛素的β细胞为糖尿病治疗带来了新希望。在这项研究中,我们证明了在仿生3D支架内从hESCs发育胰岛类器官的可行性。我们表明,这样的3D微环境对于从hESCs生成胰腺内胚层和内分泌细胞至关重要。形成的类器官由胰腺α、β、δ和胰腺多肽(PP)细胞组成。这些细胞中PDX1、NKX6.1和NGN3的高水平共表达表明了胰腺β细胞的特征。更重要的是,大多数生成的分泌胰岛素的细胞不表达胰高血糖素、生长抑素或PP。在这些3D诱导的细胞簇中检测到了成熟β细胞标记基因如Pdx1、Ngn3、胰岛素、MafA和Glut2的表达。C肽的高水平表达证实了这些3D诱导细胞中从头开始的内源性胰岛素产生。在这些细胞中也检测到了胰岛素分泌颗粒,这是β细胞成熟的一个指标。葡萄糖刺激实验表明,由于这些细胞成熟度提高,它们对葡萄糖水平敏感。将细胞暴露于高浓度葡萄糖会导致胰岛素分泌急剧增加。