Development of Canine Models of Type 1 Diabetes With Partial Pancreatectomy and the Administration of Streptozotocin.

We created canine models of type 1 diabetes that were suitable for the assessment of cell therapies, such as islet transplantation and bioartificial pancreas, with low-dose streptozotocin (STZ) injection and partial pancreatectomy. In our model, a 50% pancreatectomy was performed with general anesthesia, followed by systemic injection of 35 mg/kg STZ into a vein of the foreleg. Four weeks after the administration of STZ, the fasting blood glucose level of our model dogs was found to be over 200 mg/dl twice on different days, and we could not detect any canine insulin by the intravenous glucose tolerance test (IVGTT).

Establishment of an immortalized porcine liver cell line JSNK-1 with retroviral transduction of SV40T.

Maintenance of freshly isolated porcine liver cells in vitro is limited for a short period of time. Therefore, establishment of easy handling cell lines is extremely important for in vitro study for liver cells and their possible utilization for cell differentiation and growth of stem cells. Porcine liver cells were transduced with a retroviral vector SSR#69 expressing SV40T, one of SSR#69-immortalized porcine liver cell lines, JSNK-1, was established and characterized.

Hepatic differentiation of mouse iPS cells in vitro.

Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells are pluripotent and are able to unlimitedly proliferate in vitro. This technical breakthrough in creating iPS cells from somatic cells has noteworthy implications for overcoming the immunological rejection and the ethical issues associated with the derivation of embryonic stem cells from embryos. In the current work, we present an efficient hepatic differentiation of mouse iPS cells in vitro.

Comparative analysis of endoderm formation efficiency between mouse ES cells and iPS cells.

Definitive endoderm (DE) derived from stem cells holds potential to differentiate into hepatocytes. Stem cell therapy using those cells has potential for a treatment of liver disease. To date, various ways of inducing hepatocytes from embryonic stem (ES) cells have been reported by researchers.

Isolation and propagation of a human CD133(-) colon tumor-derived cell line with tumorigenic and angiogenic properties.

It has been proposed in human colorectal cancers (CRC) a minority subset of cancer cells within tumors able to initiate tumor growth, defined as cancer stem cells (CSC). Solid human primary colonic and its ovarian metastatic cancer tissues were collected from fresh surgical samples and subsequent xenografts were established in nonobese diabetic/severe combined immunodeficient (NOD/SCID) mice. The resulting tumors were disaggregated into single-cell suspensions and a CD133(-) cell line (NANK) was newly established and analyzed by flow cytometry.

Characteristics of CD133(+) human colon cancer SW620 cells.

Worldwide, colorectal cancer is the third most common type of cancer affecting both sexes. It has been proposed that a small subset of cancer cells (cancer stem cells) within each tumor is able to initiate tumor growth. In 2007, two research groups simultaneously identified a colon cancer stem cell population in human tumors by the use of CD133 expression.

Treatment of acute liver failure in mice by hepatocyte xenotransplantation.

Liver diseases still have a high mortality even though liver transplantation has become a standard treatment. Currently, hepatocyte transplantation has been proposed as another promising strategy. One limitation is the availability of human livers as a source of hepatocytes.

Bone repair by transplantation of hTERT-immortalized human mesenchymal stem cells in mice.

Background: Human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) are multipotent stem cells found in the adult bone marrow that have the capacity to differentiate into various mesenchymal cell types. The hMSCs may provide a potential therapy to restore damaged tissues or organs of mesenchymal origin; however, a drawback is their limited life span in vitro.

Methods: We immortalized normal hMSCs with retrovirally transmitted human telomerase reverse transcriptase cDNA.

Cancer stem cell research: current situation and problems.

The concept of a "cancer stem cell system" that continues to supply cancer component cells has been proposed. It is time to apply stem cell studies, which is a field of expertise in regenerative medicine, to cancer treatment. Cancer treatments that effectively attack cancer stem cells acting as a manufacturing plant for producing differentiated cancer progenies will be designed by revealing the cancer stem cell system.