ISOLATION AND PURIFICATION OF HUMAN INSULIN PRODUCING CELLS FOR THE TREATMENT OF INSULIN DEPENDENT DIABETES

摘要

A method for producing an ex vivo population of human insulin-producing cells that produce insulin in response to glucose from a patient is disclosed. The population of insulin producing cells is derived from human epithelial cells by causing those epithelial cells to differentiate into insulin producing cells. In one embodiment, the epithelial cells are derived from human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). The MSCs can be cultured from human bone marrow. In one embodiment, a culture of epithelial cell linage is generated by cultivating a sample of human cells containing a mixed culture containing human MSCs to produce an enriched culture of MSCs having a higher concentration of MSCs than the sample; and then differentiating cells from the enriched culture into cells of the epithelial cell lineage.