胰岛β细胞数量的增加有自我复制和新生两条途径，其中干细胞参与的新生过程至关重要。项目组前期研究发现，牛磺酸合成限速酶在胰腺组织内表达，同时发现牛磺酸能够促进链脲佐菌素（特异性破坏胰岛β细胞）诱导糖尿病大鼠胰腺干细胞标志物表达，胰岛β细胞数量增多，推测牛磺酸对胰腺干细胞增殖、分化为胰岛β细胞具有促进作用。本项目拟在此基础上结合体内外试验，通过检测糖尿病大鼠胰腺干细胞增殖率、细胞核增殖抗原基因及蛋白表达的影响，确定牛磺酸对胰腺干细胞增殖的作用；分析牛磺酸诱导后，胰腺干细胞标志物、成熟β胰岛细胞标志物基因及蛋白表达的动态变化，确定牛磺酸对胰腺干细胞分化为胰岛β细胞的作用；并通过全基因组芯片杂交及对Wnt信号通路关键因子基因及蛋白表达分析，确定其对胰腺干细胞增殖、分化及信号通路的影响，进而揭示牛磺酸对胰腺干细胞增殖、分化为胰岛β细胞的调控作用及机制，为应用牛磺酸防治人类及动物糖尿病提供理论依据。

The increase of pancreatic β cells is attributed to self replication and neogenesis, during which neurogenesis participated by pancreatic cells is the most important. Our previous studies proved that cysteine sulfinate decarboxylase (CSD) which is the limited enzyme of taurine synthesis was expressed in islet. Further studies certificated that taurine could improve the expression of stem cell marker in the islet of rats with diabetes, increase the number of beta cells of islet, indicating that taurine may play important role in the proliferation and differentiation of pancreatic stem cells. This study aims to combine the in vivo and in vitro experiment based on the previous studies, detecting the effect of taurine on the proliferation rate of islet stem cells, investigating the effect of taurine on the gene and protein expressions of cell proliferation nuclear antigen by real-time PCR and western-blot to inspect the effect of taurine on proliferation of pancreatic stem cells; inspecting the effect of taurine on cell differentiation by detecting the expressions of pancreatic stem cells and islet cell marker using Immunohistochemistry, Western-blot and RT-PCR. The effect and mechanism of taurine on the proliferation and differention of islet stem cells and the signal transduction pathway were revealed by analyzing the whole genome microarray hybridization, gene and protein expression of key factors in Wnt signal transduction pathway to determine its effect on cell proliferation, differentiation and signal transduction pathway in pancreatic stem cells, in order to provide theoretical basis for prevention and treatment of human and animal diabetes.