Recently, we have successfully obtained functional IPCs efficiently from umbilical cord blood-derived mesenchymal stem cells by using hypoxia treatment. In this study, we further elaborated that the improved function and viability of IPCs are the result of the interaction 13 cell development pathway and c-Met/HGF axis induced by hypoxia. We found that hypoxia induced c-MET elevation is efficiently initiated the early stage differentiation IPCs from MSCs, and HGF improved the fully differentiation of IPCs by inducing the expression of NGN3. This finding may contribute to understanding 11 cell development and the development of stem cell therapy for diabetes. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.