Human pancreatic islet-derived precursor cells display mesenchymal stem cell features and differentiation capacity

Objectives: Strategies for cell based-therapy of type 1 diabetes mellitus are based on pancreatic islet replacement and islet regeneration. Human islet-derived precursor cells (hIPC) expressing nestin and c-met have been investigated as an additional source of beta-cells. These cells have been demonstrated to differentiate in vitro into insulin producing cells and are assumed to be of endodermal origin. In continuation of previous work we provide further evidence that hIPCs share a common phenotype with human bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells (hMSC) and, in addition, bear the potential to differentiate…