Developing a Sensitive Reporter System for Monitoring of Pancreatic and Duodenal Homeobox Gene 1 (Pdx1) and Neurogenin 3 (Ngn3) – Mediated Transdifferentiation from Human Hepatic Cells into Insulin-Producing Beta-Like Cells

It is well known that cellular differentiation is not a terminal process. Transdifferentiation is the conversion of one differentiated cell type to another. There are many examples of induced transdifferentiation between cell types by expression of ectopic transcription factors. Here we show that combined lentiviral expression of Pdx1 or Pdx1-VP16 fusion protein and Ngn3 can direct the transdifferentiation of hepatic cells into insulin producing cells. We showed that the Pdx1 or Pdx1-VP16 fusion protein and Ngn3 together synergistically increased transactivation for the insulin gene. This provides a useful model to study the transdifferentiation process.