In Vitro Differentiation of Human Umbilical Cord Blood Cd133+ Cells Into Insulin Producing Cells in Co-Culture With Rat Pancreatic Mesenchymal Stem Cells

Objective: pancreatic stroma plays an important role in the induction of pancreatic cellsby the use of close range signaling. in this respect, we presume that pancreatic mesenchymalcells (pmcs) as a fundamental factor of the stromal niche may have an effectiverole in differentiation of umbilical cord blood cluster of differentiation 133+ (ucb-cd133+)cells into newly-formed b-cells in vitro.materials and methods: this study is an experimental research. the ucb-cd133+ cellswere purified by magnetic activated cell sorting (macs) and differentiated into insulinproducing cells (ipcs) in co-culture, both directly and indirectly with rat pmcs. immunocytochemistryand enzyme linked immune sorbent assay (elisa) were used to determineexpression and production of insulin and c-peptide at the protein level.results: our results demonstrated that ucb-cd133+ differentiated into ipcs. cells inislet-like clusters with (out) co-cultured with rat pancreatic stromal cells produced insulinand c-peptide and released them into the culture medium at the end of the induction protocol.however they did not respond well to glucose challenges.conclusion: rat pmcs possibly affect differentiation of ucb-cd133+ cells into ipcs byincreasing the number of immature b-cells.