miR-212/132-Enriched Extracellular Vesicles Promote Differentiation of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Into Pancreatic Beta Cells

  • Front Cell Dev Biol. 2021 May 13:9:673231. doi: 10.3389/fcell.2021.673231.
Chunyu Bai  1  2 Qiwei Ren  3 Haifeng Liu  4 Xiangchen Li  5 Weijun Guan  2 Yuhua Gao  1  2
Affiliations
  • 1. Institute of Precision Medicine, Jining Medical University, Jining, China.
  • 2. Institute of Animal Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing China.
  • 3. College of Basic Medicine, Jining Medical University, Jining, China.
  • 4. Department of Laboratory Medicine, Affiliated Hospital of Jining Medical University, Jining, China.
  • 5. College of Animal Science and Technology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Zhejiang A&F University, Lin'an, China.
Abstract

Pancreatic beta cell transplantation is the ideal method for treatment of type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM), and the generation of beta cells from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) of patients is a promising strategy. In this study, we improved a previous strategy to produce beta cells using extracellular vesicles (EVs) derived from mature beta cells and differentiated beta cells from iPSCs (i-Beta cells), which secreted Insulin under glucose stimulation in vitro and ameliorated hyperglycemia in vivo. Mechanistic analyses revealed that EV-carried MicroRNA (miR)-212/132 (EV-miR-212/132) directly bound to the 3' UTR of FBW7 to prevent its translation and FBW7 combined with NGN3 to accelerate its proteasomal degradation. EV-miR-212/132 stabilized NGN3 expression to promote differentiation of endocrine cells from induced iPSCs. Moreover, NGN3 bound to PDX1 to enhance transcription of endogenous miR-212/132 and formed a positive regulatory circuit that maintained the functions of mature pancreatic beta cells.

Conclusion: This study describes a novel approach for beta cell production and supports the use of iPSCs for cell replacement therapy of T1DM.

Keywords
beta cells; differentiation; extracellular vesicles; iPSCs; miRNAs.
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