Possibility of insulin-producing cells derived from mouse embryonic stem cells for diabetes treatment

Insulin injection therapy is the principal current treatment of type 1 diabetes. Patients, however, suffer from various complications generated by insufficient control of blood glucose levels over a long period. Therefore, a method which can infuse insulin in response to changes of blood glucose levels is eagerly desired. Transplantation of insulin releasing cells derived from embryonic stem (ES) cells has been expected to be one of promising approaches to realize this requirement. In this study, ES cell progeny which were derived in culture media with/without fetal calf serum contained two distinct kinds of cells immunostained by anti-insulin and anti-C-peptide antibodies. The cytoplasm and nuclei of one type of cell were immunoreactive against antibodies for insulin, while the other kind of cell only had the cytoplasm stained by the anti-insulin antibody. The first cell type was the major population of insulin-positive cells in serum-free medium, while the latter kind of cells was the major population in medium containing serum. Interestingly, the latter insulin-positive cells could be also immunostained by anti-C-peptide antibodies, and was observed even after nine subcultures in medium containing serum. Although there still remain many issues to be addressed in order to definitely demonstrate that insulin-positive cells derived from ES cells to be truly beta cells in the islets, these properties of the obtained cells are believed to promising cells for treatment of type 1 diabetes.