Full biological characterization of human pluripotent stem cells will open the door to translational research.
Since the discovery of human embryonic stem cells (hESC) and human-induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC), great hopes were held for their therapeutic application including disease modeling, drug discovery screenings, toxicological screenings and regenerative therapy. hESC and hiPSC have the advantage of indefinite self-renewal, thereby generating an inexhaustible pool of cells with, e.g., specific genotype for developing putative treatments; they can differentiate into derivatives of all three germ layers enabling autologous transplantation, and via donor-selection they can express various genotypes of interest for better disease modeling. Furthermore, drug screenings and toxicological screenings in hESC and hiPSC are more pertinent to identify drugs or chemical compounds that are harmful for human, than a mouse model could predict. Despite continuing research in the wide field of therapeutic applications, further understanding of the underlying basic mechanisms of stem cell function is necessary. Here, we summarize current knowledge concerning pluripotency, self-renewal, apoptosis, motility, epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition and differentiation of pluripotent stem cells.
Institute of Medical Genetics, Medical University of Vienna, Währingerstrasse 10, 1090, Vienna, Austria.
Nina
N
Kramer
Institute of Medical Genetics, Medical University of Vienna, Währingerstrasse 10, 1090, Vienna, Austria.
Margit
M
Rosner
Institute of Medical Genetics, Medical University of Vienna, Währingerstrasse 10, 1090, Vienna, Austria.
Boris
B
Kovacic
Institute of Medical Genetics, Medical University of Vienna, Währingerstrasse 10, 1090, Vienna, Austria. markus.hengstschlaeger@meduniwien.ac.at.
Markus
M
Hengstschläger
D000826:Animal Testing Alternatives; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000187:drug effects; D001681:Biological Assay; D002453:Cell Cycle / Q000187:drug effects; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D019070:Cell Lineage; D002465:Cell Movement / Q000187:drug effects; D000066673:Cell Self Renewal / Q000187:drug effects; D002471:Cell Transformation, Neoplastic / Q000139:chemically induced; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D058750:Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition / Q000187:drug effects; D006801:Humans; D057026:Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D010641:Phenotype; D018570:Risk Assessment; D018675:Toxicity Tests / Q000379:methods*; D057170:Translational Research, Biomedical / Q000379:methods*
Apoptosis; Embryonic stem cells; Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition; Induced pluripotent stem cells; Motility; Self-renewal