Patent ID: 9745554
Date: 2017-08-29
CPC Classifications: A61K,A61P,C12N

Claim:
1. A method of improving insulin or glucagon production in mature pancreatic endocrine cells in a pancreatic cell culture comprising contacting pancreatic endocrine cells with (1) an exogenous caspase inhibitor in an amount sufficient to reduce apoptosis in the pancreatic endocrine cells; and (2) at least one exogenous growth factor in an amount sufficient to increase the level of activated Akt in the pancreatic endocrine cells; and differentiating the pancreatic endocrine cells contacted with (1) and (2) into mature pancreatic endocrine cells that express insulin and/or glucagon at a synergistically higher level than differentiated pancreatic endocrine cells contacted only with (1) or (2), wherein glucagon and/or insulin are as measured by qPCR analysis of insulin mRNA or glucagon mRNA, respectively, and wherein the qPCR results are as displayed as the ratio of insulin mRNA to β-actin mRNA, or glucagon mRNA to actin mRNA, respectively.