Recent scientific breakthroughs in stem cell biology suggest that a sustainable treatment approach to cure diabetes mellitus (DM) can be achieved in the near future. However, the transplantation complexities and the difficulty in obtaining the stem cells from adult cells of pancreas, liver, bone morrow and other cells is a major concern. The epoch-making strategy of transcription-factor based c...

Artificially generated pancreatic β-cells from pluripotent stem cells are expected for cell replacement therapy for type 1 diabetes. Several strategies are adopted to direct pluripotent stem cells toward pancreatic differentiation. However, a standard differentiation method for clinical application has not been established. It is important to develop more effective and safer methods for generat...

OBJECTIVE Insulin release from pancreatic β-cells is controlled by plasma glucose levels via mitochondrial fuel metabolism. Therefore, insulin secretion is critically dependent on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and the genes it encodes. Mitochondrial transcription factor B2 (TFB2M) controls transcription of mitochondrial-encoded genes. However, its precise role in mitochondrial metabolism in pancrea...

The gallbladder and cystic duct (GBCs) are parts of the extrahepatic biliary tree and share a common developmental origin with the ventral pancreas. Here, we report on the very first genetic reprogramming of patient-derived human GBCs to β-like cells for potential autologous cell replacement therapy for type 1 diabetes. We developed a robust method for large-scale expansion of human GBCs ex viv...

The gallbladder and cystic duct (GBCs) are parts of the extrahepatic biliary tree and share a common developmental origin with the ventral pancreas. Here, we report on the very first genetic reprogramming of patient-derived human GBCs to β-like cells for potential autologous cell replacement therapy for type 1 diabetes. We developed a robust method for largescale expansion of human GBCs ex vivo...

Corresponding author: Jae-Hyoung Cho Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, The Catholic University of Korea School of Medicine, 222 Banpo-daero, Seocho-gu, Seoul 137-701, Korea E-mail: [email protected] It is well known that lipotoxicity can cause β-cells injury and/ or dysfunction as well as glucotoxicity [1-4]. If we could expect improvement of β-cell dy...

OBJECTIVE Retinoid X receptors (RXRs) are members of the nuclear hormone receptor superfamily and are thought to be key regulators in differentiation, cellular growth, and gene expression. Although several experiments using pancreatic β-cell lines have shown that the ligands of nuclear hormone receptors modulate insulin secretion, it is not clear whether RXRs have any role in insulin secretion....

Fructose-induced hyperinsulinemia is associated with insulin compensative secretion and predicts the onset of type 2 diabetes. In this study, we investigated the preservation of dietary flavonoid quercetin on pancreatic β -cell mass and function in fructose-treated rats and INS-1 β -cells. Quercetin was confirmed to reduce serum insulin and leptin levels and blockade islet hyperplasia in fructo...

BACKGROUND The pathology of diabetic neuropathy involves oxidative stress on pancreatic β-cells, and is related to decreased levels of Insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1). Acylated steryl β-glucoside (PR-ASG) found in pre-germiated brown rice is a bioactive substance exhibiting properties that enhance activity of homocysteine-thiolactonase (HTase), reducing oxidative stress in diabetic neuropa...

Differentiation of pancreatic β-cells is regulated by a wide range of signalling pathways. The aim of our current work was to evaluate the effect of the Jak/Stat signalling pathway on the differentiation of human non-endocrine pancreatic cells into insulin-producing cells. Activation of the Jak/Stat signalling pathway by leukaemia inhi...