Generation of Insulin-Producing Cells from Canine Bone Marrow-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells: A Preliminary Study

Cell-based therapy using insulin-producing cells (IPCs) is anticipated as an alternative treatment option to insulin injection or pancreatic islet transplantation for the treatment of diabetes mellitus in both human and veterinary medicine. Several protocols were reported for the differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) into IPCs; to date, glucose-responsive IPCs have only been obtained from canine adipose tissue-derived MSCs (cAD-MSCs), but not from canine bone marrow-derived MSCs (cBM-MSCs). Therefore, this study aims to generate in vitro glucose-responsive IPCs from cBM-MSCs using two differentiation protocols: a two-step protocol using trichostatin (TSA) and a three-step protocol using mercaptoethanol to induce pancreatic and duodenal homeobox gene 1 (PDX-1) expression. A single experiment was carried out for each protocol. BM-MSCs from one dog were successfully cultured and expanded. Cells exposed to the two-step protocol appeared rarely grouped to form small clusters; gene expression analysis showed a slight increase in PDX-1 and insulin expression, but no insulin protein production nor secretion in the culture medium was detected either under basal conditions or following glucose stimulation. Conversely, cells exposed to the three-step protocol under a 3D culture system formed colony-like structures; insulin gene expression was upregulated compared to undifferentiated control and IPCs colonies secreted insulin in the culture medium, although insulin secretion was not enhanced by high-glucose culture conditions. The single experiment results suggest that the three-step differentiation protocol could generate IPCs from cBM-MSCs; however, further experiments are needed to confirm these data. The ability of IPCs from cBM- MSCs to produce insulin, described here for the first time, is a preliminary interesting result. Nevertheless, the IPCs’ unresponsiveness to glucose, if confirmed, would affect its clinical application. Further studies are necessary to establish a differentiation protocol in this perspective.