Neural crest stem cells from hair follicles and boundary cap have different effects on pancreatic islets in vitro

Purpose: Neural crest stem cells derived from the boundary cap (bNCSCs), markedly promote survival, proliferation and function of insulin producing beta-cells in vitro and in vivo after coculture/transplantation with pancreatic islets [1, 2]. Recently, we have shown that beneficial effects on beta-cells require cadherin contacts between bNCSCs and beta-cells [3, 4]. Here we investigated whether hair follicle (HF) NCSCs, a potential source for human allogeneic transplantation, exert similar positive effects on beta-cells. Materials and Methods: We established cocultures of HF-NCSCs or bNCSCs from mice expressing enhanced green fluorescent protein together with pancreatic islets from DxRed expressing mice or NMRI mice and compared their migration towards islet cells and effect on proliferation of beta-cells as well as intracellular relations between NCSCs and islets using qRT-PCR analysis and immunohistochemistry. Results: Whereas both types of NCSCs migrated extensively in the presence of islets, only bNCSCs demonstrated directed migration toward islets, induced beta-cell proliferation and increased the presence of cadherin at the junctions between bNCSCs and beta-cells. Even in direct contact between beta-cells and HF-NCSCs, no cadherin expression was detected. Conclusions: These observations indicate that HF-NCSCs do not confer the same positive effect on beta-cells as demonstrated for bNCSCs. Furthermore, these data suggest that induction of cadherin expression by HF-NCSCs may be useful for their ability to support beta-cells in coculture and after transplantation.