title: Human pluripotent stem cells in modeling human disorders: the case of fragile X syndrome.
abstract: Human pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) generated from affected blastocysts or from patient-derived somatic cells are an emerging platform for disease modeling and drug discovery. Fragile X syndrome (FXS), the leading cause of inherited intellectual disability, was one of the first disorders modeled in both embryonic stem cells and induced PCSs and can serve as an exemplary case for the utilization of human PSCs in the study of human diseases. Over the past decade, FXS-PSCs have been used to address the fundamental questions regarding the pathophysiology of FXS. In this review we summarize the methodologies for generation of FXS-PSCs, discuss their advantages and disadvantages compared with existing modeling systems and describe their utilization in the study of FXS pathogenesis and in the development of targeted treatment.
authors.affiliation: The Azrieli Center for Stem Cells & Genetic Research, Department of Genetics, Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem 91904, Israel.
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Vershkov
authors.affiliation: The Azrieli Center for Stem Cells & Genetic Research, Department of Genetics, Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem 91904, Israel.
authors.forename: Nissim
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Benvenisty
mesh_terms: D005600:Fragile X Syndrome / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D039904:Pluripotent Stem Cells / Q000473:pathology*
keywords: disease modeling; drug discovery; embryonic stem cells; fragile X syndrome; human pluripotent stem cells; neural differentiation