Pancreatic tissue engineering as a therapeutic option for restoring and maintenance of damaged pancreas function has a special focus to using synthetic Scaffolds. This study was designed to evaluate pancreatic differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) on poly-L-lactic acid and polyvinyl alcohol (PLLA/PVA) scaffolds as 3 D matrix. During differentiation process, morphology of cells gradually changed and iPSCs derived insulin producing cells (iPSCs-IPCs) formed spherical shaped cell aggregation that was the typical shape of islets of pancreas. The highly efficient differentiation of iPSCs into a relatively homogeneous population of IPCs was shown by immunostaining. Real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) results demonstrated that iPSCs-IPCs expressed pancreas-specific transcription factors (Pdx1, insulin, glucagon and Ngn3). The expressions of these transcription factors in PLLA/PVA scaffold were significantly higher than 2 D groups. Furthermore, we showed that concentration of insulin and C-peptide in PLLA/PVA scaffold and/or 2 D culture in response to various concentrations of glucose increased but the difference between them were not significant. Altogether the current results demonstrated that PLLA/PVA scaffold could provide the microenvironment that promotes the pancreatic differentiation of iPSCs, up-regulate pancreatic-specific transcription factors and improved metabolic activity.

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Transplantation of islet is a promising method in treatment of patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM), however, is limited by islet shortage. The aim of this study was to prepare a polyethersulfone (PES) nanofibrous scaffolds to evaluate the pancreatic differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs). The differentiation process in tissue culture dishes and PES scaffolds was evaluated at mRNA and protein level by RT-qPCR and immunofluorescence assay, respectively. The functionality of differentiated cells was determined by insulin and C-peptide release in response to glucose challenges. The results of this study showed that cells cultured on PES nanofibrous scaffolds exhibit more pancreatic b-cell characteristics as they express more pancreatic tissue-specific genes and proteins. Furthermore, the immunoassay showed that differentiated cells in both culture plates and PES scaffolds groups are functional and secrete C-peptide and insulin in response to glucose challenges. Altogether, the results of this study demonstrated that PES nanofibrous scaffold could provide the microenvironment that promotes the differentiation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) into insulin producing cells.