Evaluating protocols for embryonic stem cell differentiation into insulin-secreting beta-cells using insulin II-GFP as a specific and noninvasive reporter.

ABSTRACT: Stable and full differentiation of pluripotent stem cells into functional beta-cells offers the potential to treat type I diabetes with a theoretically inexhaustible source of replacement cells. In addition to the difficulties in directed differentiation, progress toward an optimized and reliable protocol has been hampered by the complication that cultured cells will concentrate insulin from the media, thus making it difficult to tell which, if any, cells are producing insulin. To address this, we utilized a novel murine embryonic stem cell (mESC) research model, in which the green fluorescent protein (GFP) has been inserted within the C-peptide of the mouse insulinII gene (InsulinII-GFP). Using this method, cells producing insulin are easily identified. We then compared four published pro

SUBMITTER: Ben-Yehudah A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2996248 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature