<front xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="http://jats.nlm.nih.gov/publishing/1.0/xsd/JATS-journalpublishing1.xsd" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <journal-meta> <journal-id journal-id-type="publisher-id">JDR</journal-id> <journal-title-group> <journal-title>Journal of Diabetes Research</journal-title> </journal-title-group> <issn pub-type="epub">2314-6753</issn> <issn pub-type="ppub">2314-6745</issn> <publisher> <publisher-name>Hindawi Publishing Corporation</publisher-name> </publisher> </journal-meta> <article-meta> <article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.1155/2016/5807876</article-id> <article-id pub-id-type="publisher-id">5807876</article-id> <article-categories> <subj-group subj-group-type="heading"> <subject>Research Article</subject> </subj-group> </article-categories> <title-group> <article-title> <italic>In Vitro</italic> Proliferation of Porcine Pancreatic Islet Cells for <italic>&#x3b2;</italic>-Cell Therapy Applications</article-title> </title-group> <contrib-group> <contrib contrib-type="author" id="U98430817"> <name> <surname>Niu</surname> <given-names>Guoguang</given-names> </name> <email>guoguang.niu@gmail.com</email> <xref ref-type="aff" rid="I1"> <sup>1</sup> </xref> </contrib> <contrib contrib-type="author" id="U20840318"> <name> <surname>McQuilling</surname> <given-names>John P.</given-names> </name> <email>jpmcquilling@gmail.com</email> <xref ref-type="aff" rid="I1"> <sup>1</sup> </xref> </contrib> <contrib contrib-type="author" id="U50378570"> <name> <surname>Zhou</surname> <given-names>Yu</given-names> </name> <email>yzhou@wakehealth.edu</email> <xref ref-type="aff" rid="I1"> <sup>1</sup> </xref> </contrib> <contrib contrib-type="author" id="U65469373"> <name> <surname>Opara</surname> <given-names>Emmanuel C.</given-names> </name> <email>eopara@wakehealth.edu</email> <xref ref-type="aff" rid="I1"> <sup>1</sup> </xref> </contrib> <contrib contrib-type="author" id="U93821056"> <name> <surname>Orlando</surname> <given-names>Giuseppe</given-names> </name> <email>gorlando@wakehealth.edu</email> <xref ref-type="aff" rid="I1"> <sup>1</sup> </xref> </contrib> <contrib contrib-type="author" id="U30937021" corresp="yes"> <contrib-id contrib-id-type="orcid">http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8458-9232</contrib-id> <name> <surname>Soker</surname> <given-names>Shay</given-names> </name> <email>ssoker@wakehealth.edu</email> <xref ref-type="aff" rid="I1"> <sup>1,2</sup> </xref> <xref ref-type="aff" rid="I2">2</xref> </contrib> <contrib contrib-type="Academic Editor" id="U52657697"> <name> <surname>Okamoto</surname> <given-names>Hiroshi</given-names> </name> </contrib> </contrib-group> <aff id="I1"> <sup>1</sup> <addr-line>Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine</addr-line> <addr-line>Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center</addr-line> <addr-line>Medical Center Boulevard</addr-line> <addr-line>Winston-Salem</addr-line> <addr-line>NC 27157</addr-line> <country>USA</country> <ext-link ext-link-type="domain-name">wakehealth.edu</ext-link> </aff> <aff id="I2"> <sup>2</sup> <addr-line>Virginia Tech</addr-line> <addr-line>Wake Forest University School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences</addr-line> <addr-line>320 ICTAS</addr-line> <addr-line>Stanger St.</addr-line> <addr-line>Virginia Tech</addr-line> <addr-line>Blacksburg</addr-line> <addr-line>VA 24060</addr-line> <country>USA</country> <ext-link ext-link-type="domain-name">vt.edu</ext-link> </aff> <pub-date pub-type="publication-year"> <year>2016</year> </pub-date> <pub-date pub-type="archival-date"><day>6</day><month>12</month><year>2016</year></pub-date> <volume>2016</volume> <history> <date date-type="received"> <day>19</day> <month>08</month> <year>2016</year> </date> <date date-type="rev-recd"> <day>04</day> <month>11</month> <year>2016</year> </date> <date date-type="accepted"> <day>13</day> <month>11</month> <year>2016</year> </date> </history> <permissions> <copyright-year>2016</copyright-year> <copyright-holder> Copyright &#xa9; 2016 Guoguang Niu et al.</copyright-holder> <license license-type="open-access"> <license-p>This is an open access article distributed under the <ext-link xlink:href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution License</ext-link>, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.</license-p> </license> </permissions> <abstract> <p><italic>&#x3b2;</italic>-Cell replacement through transplantation is the only curative treatment to establish a long-term stable euglycemia in diabetic patients. Owing to the shortage of donor tissue, attempts are being made to develop alternative sources of insulin-secreting cells. Stem cells differentiation and reprograming as well as isolating pancreatic progenitors from different sources are some examples; however, no approach has yet yielded a clinically relevant solution. Dissociated islet cells that are cultured in cell numbers by<italic> in vitro</italic> proliferation provide a promising platform for redifferentiation towards <italic>&#x3b2;</italic>-cells phenotype. In this study, we cultured islet-derived cells<italic> in vitro</italic> and examined the expression of <italic>&#x3b2;</italic>-cell genes during the proliferation. Islets were isolated from porcine pancreases and enzymatically digested to dissociate the component cells. The cells proliferated well in tissue culture plates and were subcultured for no more than 5 passages. Only 10&#x25; of insulin expression, as measured by PCR, was preserved in each passage. High glucose media enhanced insulin expression by about 4&#x2013;18 fold, suggesting a glucose-dependent effect in the proliferated islet-derived cells. The islet-derived cells also expressed other pancreatic genes such as Pdx1, NeuroD, glucagon, and somatostatin. Taken together, these results indicate that pancreatic islet-derived cells, proliferated<italic> in vitro</italic>, retained the expression capacity for key pancreatic genes, thus suggesting that the cells may be redifferentiated into insulin-secreting <italic>&#x3b2;</italic>-like cells.</p> </abstract> <counts> <ref-count count="37" /> <page-count count="8" /> </counts> </article-meta> </front>