Stem Cells: A Renewable Source of Pancreatic β-Cells and Future for Diabetes Treatment

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Stem Cells

Abstract

According to the figures released by the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), there were more than 4.8 million diabetes-related deaths in 2012 alone, and a total of 371 million people were diagnosed with diabetes. Incidentally, with the number of undiagnosed and diagnosed diabetic patients increasing globally, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is rated as one of the top few countries with a high prevalence rate estimated at 23.9%. Insufficient availability of insulin remains the hallmark of diabetes type 1 due to autoimmune loss of functionally competent β-cells, whereas diabetes type 2 may result from a combination of insufficiency of insulin and tissue resistance to the available insulin. Islet transplantation is a gold-standard treatment for diabetic patients, but poor availability of donor islets and concerns regarding long-term survival and functional ineffectiveness of the graft have hampered the progress of this treatment strategy for diabetic patients as a routine therapeutic option. Current advances in pharmacological intervention to maintain glucose homeostasis and preserve insulin-secreting β-cells can merely provide symptomatic relief. More than a decade of research has shown that stem/progenitor cells can cross lineage restriction and differentiate to adopt morphofunctionally competent β-cells. In vitro protocols have been devised based on optimization of culture conditions or genetic modification of stem cells for their efficient differentiation to mature β-cells which can secrete insulin in a glucose-responsive manner. There is a recent surge in the interest to use pluripotent stem cells following the new less stringent legislation regarding the use of embryonic stem cells (ESCs). This has also led to the advent of protocols for the reprogramming of somatic cells to achieve pluripotency reminiscence of ESCs. Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) may provide an alternative renewable source of patient-specific β-cells for transplantation to support an inefficient intrinsic repair mechanism. Additionally, given that cellular reprogramming is a multistep event and entails diverse epigenetically unstable intermediate stages, morphofunctionally competent surrogate progenitors with β-cell characteristics without iPSC generation will provide a renewable source of progenitors for tumor-free de novo regeneration of islets. This book chapter explicitly focuses on the effect of diabetes on the functionality of the intrinsic pool of stem/progenitor cells and critically appreciates the published data defining the possibility to exploit exogenous stem cells for replacement of nonfunctional pancreatic β-cells to normalize insulin production.

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Abbreviations

Ang-I:

Angiopoietin 1

Ang-II:

Angiopoietin 2

ARX:

Aristaless-related homeobox

BM:

Bone marrow

BMSCs:

Bone marrow stem cells

CSCs:

Cardiac stem cells

DPP-4:

Dipeptidyl peptidase-4

EGF:

Epidermal growth factor

EPCs:

Endothelial progenitor cells

ESCs:

Embryonic stem cells

FGF-2:

Fibroblast growth factor-2

G-CSF:

Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor

HGF-1:

Hepatocyte growth factor-1

HO-1:

Hemoxygenase-1

HSCs:

Hematopoietic stem cells

hTERT:

Human telomerase reverse transcriptase

IGF-1:

Insulin-like growth factor

IL-1:

Interleukin-1

IPCs:

Insulin-secreting β-cells

iPSCs:

Induced pluripotent stem cells

IRS-1:

Insulin receptor substrate-1

MACE:

Major adverse cardiac events

miRNA:

MicroRNA

MCP-1:

Monocyte chemoattractant protein-1

MSCs:

Mesenchymal stem cells

Ngn-3:

Neurogenin-3

Pax:

Paired box4

PCL/PVA:

Polycaprolactone and polyvinyl alcohol

Pdx1:

Pancreatic duodenal homoeobox-1

PDGF-BB:

Platelet derived growth factor-BB

PGF:

Placental growth factor

PHD3:

Prolyl hydroxylase domain 3

PLLA/PVA:

Poly-L-lactic acid and polyvinyl alcohol

PMPs:

Pancreas-derived multipotent precursors

PREPS:

Pancreatic resident endocrine progenitors

REST:

Repressor element-1 silencing transcription factor

SDF-1α:

Stromal cell-derived factor-1α

SkM:

Skeletal myoblasts

Shh:

Sonic hedgehog

STZ:

Streptozotocin

TNF-α:

Tumor necrosis factor-α

VEGF:

Vascular endothelial growth factor

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Correspondence to Khawaja Husnain Haider .

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Kh, S., Haider, K.H. (2021). Stem Cells: A Renewable Source of Pancreatic β-Cells and Future for Diabetes Treatment. In: Haider, K.H. (eds) Stem Cells. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77052-5_12

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