功能胰腺β细胞获取与应用的研究进展

Acquisition and application of functional pancreatic β cells: a review

摘要:

胰腺β细胞生成和分泌的胰岛素对维持人体正常血糖起到关键作用，胰岛素分泌不足或利用缺陷将会导致糖尿病(diabetes mellitus,DM)的发生。经典的DM治疗方法包括药物治疗和胰岛移植，新兴的胰腺β细胞替代疗法可以使患者摆脱对药物的依赖并且可以缓解胰岛移植供体缺乏的难题。通过重编程技术或者定向诱导干细胞分化等方法可以获得胰腺β样细胞，相关功能已经在体外细胞和动物体内水平得以验证。有些医院已开展了β细胞替代疗法的临床试验。体外获取具有功能的胰腺β样细胞有望成为临床DM细胞治疗的可靠来源。文中总结了胰腺β细胞主要获取方式，讨论了现有方法存在的问题，为将来获取和应用功能胰腺β细胞提供了思路。

Abstract:

Insulin is produced and secreted by pancreatic β cells in the pancreas, which plays a key role in maintaining euglycemia. Insufficient secretion or deficient usage of insulin is the main cause of diabetes mellitus (DM). Drug therapy and islets transplantation are classical treatments for DM. Pancreatic β cell replacement therapy could help patients to get rid of drugs and alleviate the problem of lacking in transplantable donors. Pancreatic β-like cells can be acquired by cell reprogramming techniques or directed induction of stem cell differentiation. These cells are proved to be functional both in vitro and in vivo. Some hospitals have already performed clinical trials for pancreatic β cell replacement therapy. Functional pancreatic β-like cells, which obtained from in vitro pathway, could be a reliable source of cell therapy for treating DM. In this review, the approaches of obtaining pancreatic β cells are summarized and the remaining problems are discussed. Some thoughts are provided for further acquisition and application of pancreatic β cells.