Strategic Studies of Islet Regeneration from Mesenchymal Stem Cells

• Main Authors: Pin-Hsuan Chu, 朱品宣
• Other Authors: 周涵怡
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2016
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/83656034401961071300

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 口腔生物科學研究所 === 104 === Diabetes is the most serious disease this century. Diabetes patients are unable to regulate their blood sugar level because of the loss of islets or islet dysfunction, it is necessary to recover their islet number and functions. Nowadays, the biggest bottleneck in islet transplantation is insufficient number of islets, thus we tried to use autologous stem cells of patients to differentiate into islet-like cells, and used in transplantation to help curing diabetes. In our research, we use mesenchymal stem cells. There is a variety of mesenchymal stem cells in mouth, easily to get, the wound is small and recover fast, which is the best source for investigation. In the last five years, there are about three hundred papers studied about how to differentiate stem cells into islet-like cells, but they only discussed about differentiate into β cells, which secrete insulin, and ignore the rest of the cells in human islets of Langerhans, including α cells, ε cells, δ cells, and PP cells. In our research, we focus on three key points: first, we expect to differentiate complete islet-like cells, which the cells in the clusters’ composite and ratio are similar to human islets; second, we rebuild the sphere structure of islet on chitosan, which have the characteristic that the cells are unattached on it; third, to test the produced islet-like cells’ function, different cells can secrete different hormones and the clusters can regulate the blood sugar level. We expect that the differentiation of islet could be used in clinic, and contribute to regenerative medicine and transplantation, provide a stable source of pancreatic islet cells.