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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Stem Cells. Dec 26, 2015; 7(11): 1251-1261
Published online Dec 26, 2015. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v7.i11.1251
Multipotent pancreas progenitors: Inconclusive but pivotal topic
Fang-Xu Jiang, Grant Morahan
Fang-Xu Jiang, Islet Cell Development Program, Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research, Nedlands, WA 6009, Australia
Fang-Xu Jiang, Grant Morahan, Centre for Medical Research, the University of Western Australia, Perth, WA 6000, Australia
Grant Morahan, Centre for Diabetes Research, Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research, Nedlands, WA 6009, Australia
Author contributions: Both authors contributed to this paper.
Supported by Telethon Perth Child Health Research Foundation; the Diabetes Research Foundation of Western Australia; the University of Western Australia; and the National Health and Medical Research Council Program, No. 53000400.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Authors do not have conflict of interest to declare.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Fang-Xu Jiang, Associate Professor, Islet Cell Development Program, Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research, 6 Verdun St, Nedlands, WA 6009, Australia. fang-xu.jiang@perkins.uwa.edu.au
Telephone: +61-8-61510758 Fax: +61-8-61510701
Received: May 22, 2015
Peer-review started: May 23, 2015
First decision: August 4, 2015
Revised: October 16, 2015
Accepted: November 10, 2015
Article in press: November 11, 2015
Published online: December 26, 2015
Abstract

The establishment of multipotent pancreas progenitors (MPP) should have a significant impact not only on the ontology of the pancreas, but also for the translational research of glucose-responding endocrine β-cells. Deficiency of the latter may lead to the pandemic type 1 or type 2 diabetes mellitus, a metabolic disorder. An ideal treatment of which would potentially be the replacement of destroyed or failed β-cells, by restoring function of endogenous pancreatic endocrine cells or by transplantation of donor islets or in vitro generated insulin-secreting cells. Thus, considerable research efforts have been devoted to identify MPP candidates in the pre- and post-natal pancreas for the endogenous neogenesis or regeneration of endocrine insulin-secreting cells. In order to advance this inconclusive but critical field, we here review the emerging concepts, recent literature and newest developments of potential MPP and propose measures that would assist its forward progression.

Keywords: Multipotent pancreas progenitors, Regeneration, Self-renewal, Clonogenesis, Differentiation

Core tip: Diabetes mellitus is a pandemic health problem that currently affects approximately 400 million people worldwide and its incidence is increasing by 2%-3% per year. At present, insulin deficiency in diabetes is treated by exogenous insulin given as either multiple daily injections or continuous subcutaneous infusion (pump), which is associated with acute, potentially life-threatening metabolic disturbances as well as chronic, vascular complications with significant morbidity and mortality. The ultimate solution would therefore be regenerative therapies by which lost β-cells in disease processes could be restored/replaced by surrogate insulin-secreting cells including those derived from multipotent pancreas progenitors.