Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease affecting over 500 million adults globally and is mainly categorized as type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM), where pancreatic beta cells are destroyed, and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), characterized by beta cell dysfunction. This review highlights the importance of the divalent cation calcium (Ca2+) and its associated signaling pathways in the proper functioning of beta cells and underlines the effects of Ca2+ dysfunction on beta cell function and its implications for the onset of diabetes. Great interest and promise are held by human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC) technology to generate functional pancreatic beta cells from diabetic patient-derived stem cells to replace the dysfunctional cells, thereby compensating for insulin deficiency and reducing the comorbidities of the disease and its associated financial and social burden on the patient and society. Beta-like cells generated by most current differentiation protocols have blunted functionality compared to their adult human counterparts. The Ca2+ dynamics in stem cell-derived beta-like cells and adult beta cells are summarized in this review, revealing the importance of proper Ca2+ homeostasis in beta-cell function. Consequently, the importance of targeting Ca2+ function in differentiation protocols is suggested to improve current strategies to use hPSCs to generate mature and functional beta-like cells with a comparable glucose-stimulated insulin secretion (GSIS) profile to adult beta cells.
Keywords: beta cells; calcium signaling; diabetes; differentiation; stem cells.