RESEARCH ARTICLE Open Access

Full list of author information is available at the end of the articleBackground Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) is an autoimmune disease in which β-cells are completely destroyed, resulting in metabolic dysfunction as a consequence of insufficient circulating levels of insulin [1,2]. Insulin therapy, as a principal method of treatment, not only has relative life-threatening complications but also do not able to mimic exactly the physiology of insulin secretion in the body [3]. The alternative method to treat diabetes are transplantation of whole pancreas and/or pancreatic islets cells [4]. Pancreatic islets transplantation has major limita-tions, including inadequate organ donor and also many complications of rejection reaction when xenogenic islet cells have been used [5]. Hence, much effort has been made to generate β cell mass either by stimulating en-dogenous regeneration of islets or in vitro differentiation of islet-like cells [6-8]. Many studies have revealed tha