Transplantation of insulin-producing cells from umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells for the treatment of streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats

Background: although diabetes mellitus (dm) can be treated with islet transplantation,a scarcity of donors limits the utility of this technique. this study investigated whether human mesenchymal stem cells (mscs) from umbilical cord could be induced efficiently to differentiate into insulin-producing cells. secondly,we evaluated the effect of portal vein transplantation of these differentiated cells in the treatment of streptozotocin-induced diabetes in rats. methods: mscs from human umbilical cord were induced in three stages to differentiate into insulin-producing cells and evaluated by immunocytochemistry,reverse transcriptase,and real-time pcr,and elisa. differentiated cells were transplanted into the liver of diabetic rats using a port-a catheter via the portal vein. blood glucose levels were monitored weekly. results: human nuclei and c-peptide were detected in the rat liver by immunohistochemistry. pancreatic ?-cell development-related genes were expressed in the differentiated cells. c-peptide release was increased after glucose challenge in vitro. furthermore,after transplantation of differentiated cells into the diabetic rats,blood sugar level decreased. insulin-producing cells containing human c-peptide and human nuclei were located in the liver. conclusion: thus,a port-a catheter can be used to transplant differentiated insulin-producing cells from human mscs into the portal vein to alleviate hyperglycemia among diabetic rats. © 2012 tsai et al.; licensee biomed central ltd.