Pancreas and pancreatic islet

Abstract

Pancreas transplantation and islet transplantation are performed all over the world. However, the number of donor is lacking. Recently pluripotent stem cells such as iPS (induced Pluripotent Stem) cells and ES (Embryonic Stem) cells are thought to be promising cell sources for regenerative medicine. Although it is not easy to make artificial pancreas from them in vitro, it is possible to induce functional islets from them. We succeeded in generating human islet-like spheroids from human iPS cells and confirmed that transplanted cells functioned in vivo. Moreover, we are aiming at the next generation islet transplantation by encapsulating induced human islets for type 1 diabetic patients.