Dysregulated lncRNAs regulate human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cell differentiation into insulin-producing cells by forming a regulatory network with mRNAs

In recent years, cell therapy has emerged as a new research direction in the treatment of diabetes. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms of mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) differentiation necessary to form such treatment have not been clarified. In this study, human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells (HUC-MSCs) isolated from newborns were progressively induced into insulin-producing cells (IPCs) using small molecules. HUC-MSC (S0) and four induced stage (S1-S4) samples were prepared. We then performed transcriptome sequencing experiments to obtain the dynamic expression profiles of both mRNAs and long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs).