title: Induced pluripotent stem cells: origins, applications, and future perspectives.
abstract: Embryonic stem (ES) cells are widely used for different purposes, including gene targeting, cell therapy, tissue repair, organ regeneration, and so on. However, studies and applications of ES cells are hindered by ethical issues regarding cell sources. To circumvent ethical disputes, great efforts have been taken to generate ES cell-like cells, which are not derived from the inner cell mass of blastocyst-stage embryos. In 2006, Yamanaka et al. first reprogrammed mouse embryonic fibroblasts into ES cell-like cells called induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. About one year later, Yamanaka et al. and Thomson et al. independently reprogrammed human somatic cells into iPS cells. Since the first generation of iPS cells, they have now been derived from quite a few different kinds of cell types. In particular, the use of peripheral blood facilitates research on iPS cells because of safety, easy availability, and plenty of cell sources. Now iPS cells have been used for cell therapy, disease modeling, and drug discovery. In this review, we describe the generations, applications, potential issues, and future perspectives of iPS cells.
authors.affiliation: School of Life Sciences, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Wen-jie
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Chen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Cong-zhe
authors.initials: CZ
authors.lastname: Hou
authors.forename: Xiao-Mei
authors.initials: XM
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Jian-gang
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Gao
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques / Q000639:trends*; D005544:Forecasting; D006801:Humans; D057026:Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D051379:Mice; D057905:Stem Cell Research; D033581:Stem Cell Transplantation / Q000639:trends*