title: Treatment of diabetes mellitus with microencapsulated fetal human liver (FH-B-TPN) engineered cells.
abstract: Transplantation of whole human pancreases or isolated islets into patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus has been severely hampered by the scarcity of cadaveric human donor organs, which mandates search for insulin producing cells/tissue source alternatives. Recent progress in stem cell biology has started looking into functionally competent, insulin-secreting progenitor cells. It had been previously observed that induced expression of the β-cell transcriptional factor of the pancreatic and duodenal homeobox gene1 (PDX1), in human hepatocytes, may activate multiple features of the β-cell phenotype. These "FH-B-TPN" cells were shown to release insulin in response to physiological glucose stimulation both, in vitro and in vivo. However, because FH-B-TPNs lack the expression of a number of β-cell or non β-cell genes, and are associated with low insulin content, we aimed to determine whether these cells, upon physical manipulation and envelopment within "clinical grade" alginate-based microcapsules, would reverse hyperglycemia after graft into diabetic animal models.
authors: Laboratory for the Study and Transplant of Pancreatic Islets (LSTPI), Department of Internal Medicine, University of Perugia, Via Enrico dal Pozzo, s.n.c., Perugia 06126, Italy. Electronic address: piamontanucci@hotmail.com.
authors: Pia
authors: P
authors: Montanucci
authors: Laboratory for the Study and Transplant of Pancreatic Islets (LSTPI), Department of Internal Medicine, University of Perugia, Via Enrico dal Pozzo, s.n.c., Perugia 06126, Italy. Electronic address: ilaria.pen@libero.it.
authors: Ilaria
authors: I
authors: Pennoni
authors: Laboratory for the Study and Transplant of Pancreatic Islets (LSTPI), Department of Internal Medicine, University of Perugia, Via Enrico dal Pozzo, s.n.c., Perugia 06126, Italy. Electronic address: teresa_pescara@vitrgilio.it.
authors: Teresa
authors: T
authors: Pescara
authors: Laboratory for the Study and Transplant of Pancreatic Islets (LSTPI), Department of Internal Medicine, University of Perugia, Via Enrico dal Pozzo, s.n.c., Perugia 06126, Italy. Electronic address: giuseppe.basta@unipg.it.
authors: Giuseppe
authors: G
authors: Basta
authors: Laboratory for the Study and Transplant of Pancreatic Islets (LSTPI), Department of Internal Medicine, University of Perugia, Via Enrico dal Pozzo, s.n.c., Perugia 06126, Italy. Electronic address: islet@unipg.it.
authors: Riccardo
authors: R
authors: Calafiore
mesh_terms: D050156:Adipogenesis; D000818:Animals; D002449:Cell Aggregation; D003921:Diabetes Mellitus, Experimental / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*; D004339:Drug Compounding; D005333:Fetus / Q000166:cytology*; D005455:Fluorescent Antibody Technique; D022781:Hepatocytes / Q000166:cytology* / Q000637:transplantation*; D006801:Humans; D007328:Insulin / Q000378:metabolism; D000078790:Insulin Secretion; D008099:Liver / Q000166:cytology / Q000196:embryology*; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D016688:Mice, Inbred NOD; D039902:Multipotent Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology; D055495:Neurogenesis; D010012:Osteogenesis; D010641:Phenotype; D019089:Stem Cell Factor / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D007328:Insulin; D019089:Stem Cell Factor