Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells ameliorate inflammatory factor-induced dysfunction of INS-1 cells on chip

Using a microfluidic chip, we have investigated whether bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) could ameliorate IL-1 beta/IFN-gamma-induced dysfunction of INS-1 cells. BM-MSCs were obtained from diabetes mellitus patients and their cell surface antigen expression profiles were analyzed by flow cytometric. INS-1 cells were cocultured with BM-MSCs on a microfluidic chip with persistent perfusion of medium containing 1 ng/mL IL-1 beta and 2.5 U/mL IFN-gamma for 72 h. BM-MSCs could partially rescue INS-1 cells from cytokine-induced dysfunction and ameliorate the expression of insulin and PDX-1 gene in INS-1 cells. Thus BM-MSCs can be viewed as a promising stem cell source to depress inflammatory factor-induced dysfunction of pancreatic beta cells in diabetic patients.