Induced pluripotent stem cells: Difference between revisions

From Citizendium
Jump to navigation Jump to search
imported>Petréa Mitchell
m (Big Cleanup)
imported>Thomas E Kelly
(Added Health Sciences Workgroup. Make sure you learn about workgroups and workgroup categories if you are from Wikipedia.)
Line 19: Line 19:
[[Category:CZ Live]]
[[Category:CZ Live]]
[[Category:Biology Workgroup]]
[[Category:Biology Workgroup]]
[[Category:Health Sciences Workgroup]]

Revision as of 16:00, 1 April 2007

Introduction

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) are a class of stem cells that are artificially derived from differentiated embryonic or adult tissues. Therapeutically, iPS cells hold the potential to be used to treat a patient with their own cells (i.e. bone marrow transplant, spinal cord injury repair).

Multiple strategies to generate iPS cells are being developed.

  • Somatic cell nuclear transfer
  • Embryonic stem cell fusion
  • Nuclear Reprogramming

Nuclear Reprogramming

Based on preveious studies, one research group set out to determine which genes are required to be expressed in order to generate/maintain embryonic stem cells.1 In a series of experiments it was determined that 4 factors are required to cause mouse fibroblasts to "dedifferentiate" into a stem-cell like state.

  • Sox2
  • Klf4
  • Oct3/4
  • c-myc

references

1. Takahashi K, Yamanaka S. Induction of pluripotent stem cells from mouse embryonic and adult fibroblast cultures by defined factors. Cell. 2006 Aug 25;126(4):663-76. Epub 2006 Aug 10. PMID: 16904174 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]