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* These authors contributed equally
This protocol presents a comparison between two different induction protocols for differentiating human dental pulp stem cells (hDPSCs) toward pancreatic lineages in vitro: the integrative protocol and the non-integrative protocol. The integrative protocol generates more insulin producing cells (IPCs).
As of 2000, the success of pancreatic islet transplantation using the Edmonton protocol to treat type I diabetes mellitus still faced some obstacles. These include the limited number of cadaveric pancreas donors and the long-term use of immunosuppressants. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been considered to be a potential candidate as an alternative source of islet-like cell generation. Our previous reports have successfully illustrated the establishment of induction protocols for differentiating human dental pulp stem cells (hDPSCs) to insulin-producing cells (IPCs). However, the induction efficiency varied greatly. In this paper, we demonstrate the comparison of hDPSCs pancreatic induction efficiency via integrative (microenvironmental and genetic manipulation) and non-integrative (microenvironmental manipulation) induction protocols for delivering hDPSC-derived IPCs (hDPSC-IPCs). The results suggest distinct induction efficiency for both the induction approaches in terms of 3-dimensional colony structure, yield, pancreatic mRNA markers, and functional property upon multi-dosage glucose challenge. These findings will support the future establishment of a clinically applicable IPCs and pancreatic lineage production platform.
Diabetes mellitus is an ongoing global concern. An International Diabetes Federation (IDF) report estimated that the global prevalence of diabetes would increase from 151 million in 2000 to 415 million in 20151,2. The latest epidemiology-based study has predicted that the estimated worldwide diabetes prevalence will increase from 451 million in 2017 to 693 million in 20451. The success of pancreatic islet transplantation using the Edmonton protocol was first demonstrated in 2000, when it was shown to maintain endogenous insulin production and stabilize the normoglycemic condition in type I diabetic patients3. However, the application of the Edmonton protocol still faces a bottleneck problem. The limited number of cadaveric pancreas donors is the main issue since each patient with type I diabetes requires at least 2-4 islet donors. Furthermore, the long-term use of immunosuppressive agents may cause life-threatening side effects4,5. To address this, the development of a potential therapy for diabetes in the past decade has mainly focused on the generation of effective insulin-producing cells (IPCs) from various sources of stem cells6.
Stem cells became an alternative treatment in many diseases, including diabetes type I, which is caused by the loss of beta-cells. Transplantation of IPCs is the new promising method for controlling blood glucose in these patients7. Two approaches for generating IPCs, integrative and non-integrative induction protocols, are presented in this article. The induction protocol mimicked the natural pancreatic developmental process to get the matured and functional IPCs8,9.
For this study, hDPSCs were characterized by flow cytometry for MSC surface marker detection, multilineage differentiation potential, and RT-qPCR to determine the expression of stemness property and proliferative gene markers (data not shown)8,9,10. hDPSCs were induced toward definitive endoderm, pancreatic endoderm, pancreatic endocrine, and pancreatic beta-cells or IPCs (Figure 1), respectively7. To induce the cells, a three-step induction approach was used as a backbone protocol. This protocol was called a non-integrative protocol. In the case of integrative protocol, the essential pancreatic transcription factor, PDX1, was overexpressed in hDPSCs followed by the induction of overexpressed PDX1 in hDPSCs using a three-step differentiation protocol. The difference between non-integrative and integrative protocol is the overexpression of PDX1 in integrative protocol and not in the non-integrative protocol. The pancreatic differentiation was compared between the integrative and non-integrative protocols in this study.
This work was performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee, Faculty of Dentistry, Chulalongkorn University. Human DPSCs (hDPSCs) were isolated from human dental pulp tissues extracted from both premolars and molars due to wisdom teeth issues. Informed consent was obtained from the patients under an approved protocol (HREC-DCU 2018/054).
1. Integrative induction protocol
2. Non-integrative induction protocol
NOTE: The non-integrative protocol is the backbone protocol for delivering the IPCs with the three-step induction process as a microenvironmental induction approach8,9.
In this article, the outcomes of both the induction protocols were compared. The diagrams of both induction protocols are illustrated in Figure 2A,C. In both the protocols, the evaluation was performed under a light microscope, and images were analyzed with ImageJ. hDPSCs were able to form colony-like structures from the first day of induction in both induction protocols. The colony's morphology was round and dense, and all colonies floated in the culture vessels through...
Achieving higher IPCs production from MSCs plays an essential role in diabetes therapy. The critical steps of the integrative protocol rely on the quality of cells to be used for the transduction and the quality of transduced cells. Some cell requirements that should be checked for successful transduction are ensuring cell healthiness, cell banking management, and cells are in a mitotically active state. Further, monitoring the viability of transduced cells also plays an important role. Less successful transduction is ca...
The authors have nothing to disclose.
SK, WR, and QDL were supported by the Veterinary Stem Cell and Bioengineering Research Unit, Ratchadaphiseksomphot Endowment Fund, Chulalongkorn University. TO and PP were supported by Chulalongkorn Academic Advancement into Its 2nd Century Project. CS was supported by a research supporting grant of the Faculty of Veterinary Science, Chulalongkorn Academic Advancement into Its 2nd Century Project, Veterinary Stem Cell and Bioengineering Research Unit, Ratchadaphiseksomphot Endowment Fund, Chulalongkorn University, and Government Research Fund.
Name | Company | Catalog Number | Comments |
Cell Culture | |||
Antibiotic-Antimycotic | Thermo Fisher Scientific Corporation, USA | 15240062 | |
Corning® 60 mm TC-treated Culture Dish | Corning® | 430166 | |
Dulbecco’s Modified Eagle Medium (DMEM) | Thermo Fisher Scientific Corporation | 12800017 | |
Fetal bovine serum (FBS) | Thermo Fisher Scientific Corporation | 10270106 | |
GlutaMAX™ | Thermo Fisher Scientific Corporation | 35050061 | |
Phosphate buffered saline (PBS) powder, pH 7.4 | Sigma-Aldrich | P3813-10PAK | One pack is used for preparing 1 L of PBS solution with sterile DDI |
Trypsin-EDTA (0.25%) | Thermo Fisher Scientific Corporation | 25200072 | |
Lentiviral Vector Carrying PDX1 Preparation | |||
Amicon® Ultra-15 Centrifugal Filter | Merck Millipore, USA | UFC910024 | |
Human pWPT-PDX1 plasmid | Addgene | 12256 | Gift from Didier Trono; http://n2t.net/addgene:12256; RRID: Addgene_12256 |
Millex-HV Syringe Filter Unit, 0.45 µm | Merck Millipore | SLHV033RB | |
pMD2.G plasmid | Addgene | 12259 | Gift from Didier Trono; http://n2t.net/addgene:12259; RRID: Addgene_12259 |
Polybrene Infection / Transfection Reagent | Merck Millipore | TR-1003-G | |
psPAX2 plasmid | Addgene | 12260 | Gift from Didier Trono; http://n2t.net/addgene:12260; RRID: Addgene_12260 |
Three-step Induction Protocol | |||
Activin A Recombinant Human Protein | Merck Millipore | GF300 | |
Beta-mercaptoethanol | Thermo Fisher Scientific Corporation | 21985-023 | |
Bovine serum albumin (BSA, Cohn fraction V, fatty acid free) | Sigma-Aldrich | A6003 | |
Glucagon-like peptide (GLP)-1 | Sigma-Aldrich | G3265 | |
Insulin-Transferrin-Selenium (ITS) | Invitrogen | 41400-045 | |
Nicotinamide | Sigma-Aldrich | N0636 | |
Non-Essential Amino Acids (NEAAs) | Thermo Fisher Scientific Corporation | 11140-050 | |
Non-treated cell culture dish, 60mm | Eppendorf | 30701011 | |
Sodium butyrate | Sigma-Aldrich | B5887 | |
Taurine | Sigma-Aldrich | T0625 |
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