title: Somatic cell reprogramming for regenerative medicine: SCNT vs. iPS cells.
abstract: Reprogramming of somatic cells to a pluripotent state holds huge potentials for regenerative medicine. However, a debate over which method is better, somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) or induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, still persists. Both approaches have the potential to generate patient-specific pluripotent stem cells for replacement therapy. Yet, although SCNT has been successfully applied in various vertebrates, no human pluripotent stem cells have been generated by SCNT due to technical, legal and ethical difficulties. On the other hand, human iPS cell lines have been reported from both healthy and diseased individuals. A recent study reported the generation of triploid human pluripotent stem cells by transferring somatic nuclei into oocytes, a variant form of SCNT. In this essay, we discuss this progress and the potentials of these two reprogramming approaches for regenerative medicine.
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Regenerative Biology, South China Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Guangjin
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Hongjie
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.forename: Duanqing
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Pei
mesh_terms: D021581:Active Transport, Cell Nucleus; D000818:Animals; D002460:Cell Line; D065150:Cellular Reprogramming; D006801:Humans; D057026:Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism*; D051379:Mice; D053652:Nuclear Transfer Techniques; D044968:Regenerative Medicine / Q000379:methods*