Engineering pancreatic tissue transplants to treat diabetes mellitus will require knowledge of how different cell types regulate pancreatic development. A study in Cell Stem Cell characterizes the nuclear transcriptome in the second-trimester human fetal pancreas and shows that macrophages support pancreatic endocrine cell differentiation, proliferation and survival in vitro.

To investigate whether macrophages could support pancreatic endocrine cell survival and development in vitro, the researchers differentiated human embryonic stem cells into pancreatic endocrine cells and macrophages and co-cultured the two cell types. Compared with endocrine cells cultured without macrophages, endocrine cells cultured with macrophages showed improved viability. Co-culture with macrophages also promoted endocrine cell proliferation and differentiation into β-like cells.