Differentiation of Wharton's Jelly Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells into Insulin Producing Cells

Background: diabetes caused by insulin production disturbance is considered as the most common metabolic disorder all over the world. diabetes may outbreak because of low insulin secretion by islets of langerhans β-cells, insulin resistance or both of them. in this way, using stem cells, which have the capability to differentiate into pancreatic β-cells, is one of novel methods in this field. mscs are the most important candidates for cellular therapy.materials and methods: insulin level was examined using eliza method. in order to examine the morphology of differentiated cells, they were stained by dithizone. insulin-producer cells are cells which turn into red as a result of staining. specific gene involving insulin-producing cells was evaluated by real time-pcr method.results: the elisa results showed that the treated cells secreted more insulin than the control group. moreover, we found differentiation of mscs toward insulin-secreting cells. in order to evaluate insulin production in clusters on day 21 of differentiation, we used dithizone (dtz) staining. pdx-1 gene was confirmed by rt- pcr analysis.conclusion: in this study, we differentiated mscs into insulin-producing cells in vitro. it is concluded that mscs may be considered as an excellent candidate in β-cell therapy in diabetes patients.