Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Pancreatic β Cells: From In Vitro Maturation to Clinical Application

Abstract

Obtaining a large number of pancreatic $β$ cells, which are fully functional in vitro, provides the opportunity to study the pathophysiology of diabetes and gives cells to replace the damaged $β$ cells in the patient body. Recently, pluripotent stem cells (PSCs), including embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), showed a great ability to differentiate into pancreatic $β$ cells as a way to model several forms of diabetes in vitro. Interestingly, the first clinical trial to treat type 1 diabetes (T1D) using hESC-derived pancreatic progenitors has been approved in 2014, indicating the rapid progress toward treating diabetes using PSCs. However, several questions remain and further studies are still required to improve the process of patient-specific PSC generation and to enhance the efficiency of the differentiation process into mature pancreatic $β$ cells in the years to come. In the current chapter, we will discuss the progress and challenges in the differentiation of PSCs into pancreatic $β$ cells and their therapeutic potentials. Also, we will describe how the use of PSCs and patient-specific PSCs can improve our understanding of the pathophysiology of diabetes and pancreatic $β$ cell development.