Pancreatic β-cell replacement: advances in protocols used for differentiation of pancreatic progenitors to β-like cells.

Insulin-producing cells derived from in vitro differentiation of stem cells and non-stem cells by using different factors can spare the need for genetic manipulation and provide a cure for diabetes. In this context, pancreatic progenitors differentiating to β-like cells garner increasing attention as β-cell replacement source. This kind of cell therapy has the potential to cure diabetes, but is still on its way of being clinically useful. The primary restriction for in vitro production of mature and functional β-cells is developing a physiologically relevant in vitro culture system which can mimic in vivo pathways of islet development. In order to achieve this target, different approaches have been attempted for the differentiation of pancreatic stem/progenitor cells to β-like cells. Here, we will review some of the state-of-the-art protocols for the differentiation of pancreatic progenitors and differentiated pancreatic cells into β-like cells with a focus on pancreatic duct cells.