Stem Cell Reports
Volume 4, Issue 4, 14 April 2015, Pages 591-604
Journal home page for Stem Cell Reports

Article
Efficient Generation of NKX6-1+ Pancreatic Progenitors from Multiple Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Lines

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stemcr.2015.02.017Get rights and content
Under a Creative Commons license
open access

Highlights

  • EGF and nicotinamide induce NKX6-1+ progenitors from hPSC-derived endoderm

  • NKX6-1+ progenitor generation can be controlled by the duration of stage 3 treatment

  • The generation of polyhormonal cells is dependent on hedgehog signaling inhibition

  • NKX6-1+ progenitors give rise to ductal, acinar, and endocrine cells in vivo

Summary

Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) represent a renewable source of pancreatic beta cells for both basic research and therapeutic applications. Given this outstanding potential, significant efforts have been made to identify the signaling pathways that regulate pancreatic development in hPSC differentiation cultures. In this study, we demonstrate that the combination of epidermal growth factor (EGF) and nicotinamide signaling induces the generation of NKX6-1+ progenitors from all hPSC lines tested. Furthermore, we show that the size of the NKX6-1+ population is regulated by the duration of treatment with retinoic acid, fibroblast growth factor 10 (FGF10), and inhibitors of bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) and hedgehog signaling pathways. When transplanted into NOD scid gamma (NSG) recipients, these progenitors differentiate to give rise to exocrine and endocrine cells, including monohormonal insulin+ cells. Together, these findings provide an efficient and reproducible strategy for generating highly enriched populations of hPSC-derived beta cell progenitors for studies aimed at further characterizing their developmental potential in vivo and deciphering the pathways that regulate their maturation in vitro.

Cited by (0)

This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).