Regeneration Therapy Diabetes Using the Pancreatic Stem Cell System

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The final goal of our study is to establish a new therapeutic approach for treatment of type II diabetes. In the present study, we investigate to elucidate the characteristics of the pancreatic stem cells and regulatory mechanism for the regulation of growth and differentiation of these cells. We first studied the changes in the expression of transcription factors during the differentiation of AR42J, a model of the pancreatic stem cells, during differentiation to insulin-producing cells. We found that activin A induced differentiation to endocrine cells and neurogeninB is a critical transcription factor. We then studied the changes in the expression of activin A in the pancreatic duct after reduction of the beta cell mas. We found that the expression of activin A was induced after the reduction of the beta cell mass. Given that activin A is a critical differentiation factor for the pancreatic stem cells, the induction of acivin A in the pancreatic duct may be a crucial step for the initiation of the beta cell neogenesis. Finally, we extablished a culture of the pancreatic ductal cells and found that these cells differentiate into insulin-secreting cells after the treatment with a combanation of activn A and betacellulin. We are currently studying the properties of differentiated cells.