Recovery of viable endocrine-specific cells and transcriptomes from human pancreatic islet-engrafted mice.

Human pancreatic islets engrafted into immunodeficient mice serve as an important model for in vivo human diabetes studies. Following engraftment, islet function can be monitored in vivo by measuring circulating glucose and human insulin; however, it will be important to recover viable cells for more complex graft analyses. Moreover, RNA analyses of dissected grafts have not distinguished which hormone-specific cell types contribute to gene expression. We developed a method for recovering live cells suitable for fluorescence-activated cell sorting from human islets engrafted in mice. Although yields of recovered islet cells were relatively low, the ratios of bulk-sorted ß, α, and δ cells and their respective hormone-specific RNA-Seq transcriptomes are comparable pretransplant and posttransplant, suggesting that the cellular characteristics of islet grafts posttransplant closely mirror the original donor islets. Single-cell RNA-Seq transcriptome analysis confirms the presence of appropriate ß, α, and δ cell subsets. In addition, ex vivo perifusion of recovered human islet grafts demonstrated glucose-stimulated insulin secretion. Viable cells suitable for patch-clamp analysis were recovered from transplanted human embryonic stem cell-derived ß cells. Together, our functional and hormone-specific transcriptome analyses document the broad applicability of this system for longitudinal examination of human islet cells undergoing developmental/metabolic/pharmacogenetic manipulation in vivo and may facilitate the discovery of treatments for diabetes.

HLA Class II Antigen Processing and Presentation Pathway Components Demonstrated by Transcriptome and Protein Analyses of Islet ß-Cells From Donors With Type 1 Diabetes.

Type 1 diabetes studies consistently generate data showing islet ß-cell dysfunction and T cell-mediated anti-ß-cell-specific autoimmunity. To explore the pathogenesis, we interrogated the ß-cell transcriptomes from donors with and without type 1 diabetes using both bulk-sorted and single ß-cells. Consistent with immunohistological studies, ß-cells from donors with type 1 diabetes displayed increased Class I transcripts and associated mRNA species. These ß-cells also expressed mRNA for Class II and Class II antigen presentation pathway components, but lacked the macrophage marker CD68. Immunohistological study of three independent cohorts of donors with recent-onset type 1 diabetes showed Class II protein and its transcriptional regulator Class II MHC trans-activator protein expressed by a subset of insulin+CD68- ß-cells, specifically found in islets with lymphocytic infiltrates. ß-Cell surface expression of HLA Class II was detected on a portion of CD45-insulin+ ß-cells from donors with type 1 diabetes by immunofluorescence and flow cytometry. Our data demonstrate that pancreatic ß-cells from donors with type 1 diabetes express Class II molecules on selected cells with other key genes in those pathways and inflammation-associated genes. ß-Cell expression of Class II molecules suggests that ß-cells may interact directly with islet-infiltrating CD4+ T cells and may play an immunopathogenic role.

Novel Observations From Next-Generation RNA Sequencing of Highly Purified Human Adult and Fetal Islet Cell Subsets.

Understanding distinct gene expression patterns of normal adult and developing fetal human pancreatic α- and ß-cells is crucial for developing stem cell therapies, islet regeneration strategies, and therapies designed to increase ß-cell function in patients with diabetes (type 1 or 2). Toward that end, we have developed methods to highly purify α-, ß-, and δ-cells from human fetal and adult pancreata by intracellular staining for the cell-specific hormone content, sorting the subpopulations by flow cytometry, and, using next-generation RNA sequencing, we report the detailed transcriptomes of fetal and adult α- and ß-cells. We observed that human islet composition was not influenced by age, sex, or BMI, and transcripts for inflammatory gene products were noted in fetal ß-cells. In addition, within highly purified adult glucagon-expressing α-cells, we observed surprisingly high insulin mRNA expression, but not insulin protein expression. This transcriptome analysis from highly purified islet α- and ß-cell subsets from fetal and adult pancreata offers clear implications for strategies that seek to increase insulin expression in type 1 and type 2 diabetes.