Supplementation of Zinc Induces Retinoic Acid-Mediated Differentiation of Rat Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells (Mscs) in to Insulin Producing Cells (Ipcs) in-Vitro

Abstract

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) from bone marrow of adult Wistar albino rats were harvested and cultured in a basic cell cultur e medium. Retinoic acid was used to induce the differentiation of MSCs in to pancreatic beta cell lineage. Differentiation media tested with and without zinc supplementation. It was observed in this study that zinc supplementation induces differentiation of MSCs into insulin producing cells (IPCs). The result was confirmed by morphological changes in the cells following differentiation and enhanced production of insulin in differentiated cells by dithizone staining. This finding may help researchers to further optimize their protocols to increase the yield of differentiated cells of beta cell lineage from bone marrow MSCs.