title: Monoclonal side population progenitors isolated from human fetal pancreas.
abstract: The side population (SP) phenotype might represent a common molecular feature for a wide variety of stem cells. The aim of this study was to investigate whether monoclonal SP progenitor cells were established from human fetal pancreas. Islet-like cell clusters (ICCs) were isolated from human fetal pancreas. Monolayer epithelium-like cells were obtained from the ICCs and passaged thereafter. Single SP or non-SP cells were sorted from these cells at the sixth passage. The rate of clone formation was about 2.7% for the SP cells, whereas there was no clone formation for the non-SP cells. The SP cell clones were further expanded for more than 15 passages and induced for differentiation into cells with characteristics of pancreatic beta-cells. We show for the first time that the monoclonal SP progenitors are established from human fetal pancreas. Therefore, this study may offer a novel method to purify pancreatic progenitor cells from human tissues.
authors.affiliation: Department of Endocrinology, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing 100083, China.
authors.forename: Ling
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Jiang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Tian-Pei
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: Hong
authors.forename: Yi-Nan
authors.initials: YN
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Yong-Hua
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Ling-Song
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D018929:Cell Culture Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D019976:Cloning, Organism / Q000379:methods; D016207:Cytokines / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D007515:Islets of Langerhans / Q000166:cytology* / Q000196:embryology* / Q000378:metabolism; D010179:Pancreas / Q000166:cytology* / Q000196:embryology* / Q000378:metabolism; D010641:Phenotype; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D016207:Cytokines