| abstract |
It is intended to provide a method of forming pancreatic β cells from mesenchymal cells characterized by comprising using mammal-origin mesenchymal cells as starting cells, culturing these cells in the presence of, for example, a pancreatic β cell-forming agent, and selecting and separating the thus obtained pancreatic βcells with the use of a gene expressed specifically in such cells as a selection marker; a remedy for glucose intolerance which comprises pancreatic β cells obtained by the above method as the active ingredient; a pancreatic β cell-forming agent such as a cytokine to be used in the above method; a method of screening a candidate compound promoting the formation of pancreatic β cells from mesenchymal cells; and a pancreatic β cell formation promoter obtained by this screening method. |