Human pancreatic duct cell-derived iPSCs show enhanced differentiation into insulin-producing cells.

Abstract

Islet transplantation is a promising treatment for diabetes, but the shortage of donor islets limits its broad application. Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) provide an alternative source for generating insulin-producing cells; however, whether the somatic cell origin of human iPSCs influences pancreatic endocrine differentiation remains incompletely defined. In this study, we generated iPSCs from human pancreatic duct cells (HD-iPSCs) and compared their differentiation propensity and functional characteristics with human fibroblast-derived iPSCs (HF-iPSCs) under identical differentiation conditions. HD-iPSC-derived cells showed higher expression of pancreatic endocrine and β-cell-associated markers, including insulin, PDX1, and FOXA2, compared with HF-iPSC-derived cells. Flow cytometric analysis further confirmed a higher proportion of insulin-positive cells in differentiated HD-iPSC-derived cells. Functionally, HD-iPSC-derived cells exhibited greater glucose-stimulated C-peptide secretion than HF-iPSC-derived cells, although their secretory capacity remained lower than that of native human islets. Following transplantation into streptozotocin-induced diabetic mice, HD-iPSC-derived cells reduced blood glucose levels more effectively than HF-iPSC-derived cells, and insulin-positive grafts were detected in vivo. These findings suggest that human pancreatic duct cell-derived iPSCs have enhanced pancreatic endocrine differentiation potential compared with fibroblast-derived iPSCs. Although further maturation and optimization are required, pancreatic duct cells may represent a favorable somatic cell source for generating iPSC-derived insulin-producing cells for diabetes cell therapy.