Induced pluripotent stem cells, commonly abbreviated as iPS cells or iPSCs are a type of pluripotent stem cell artificially derived from a non-pluripotent cell, typically an adult somatic cell, by inducing a "forced" expression of specific genes.
Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells are similar to natural pluripotent stem cells, such as embryonic stem (ES) cells, in many respects, such as the expression of certain stem cell genes and proteins, chromatin methylation patterns, doubling time, embryoid body formation, teratoma formation, viable chimera formation, and potency and differentiability, but the full extent of their relation to natural pluripotent stem cells is still being assessed.
iPSCs were first produced in 2006 from mouse cells and in 2007 from human cells. This has been cited as an important advance in stem cell research, as it may allow researchers to obtain pluripotent stem cells, which are important in research and potentially have therapeutic uses, without the controversial use of embryos. They may also be less prone to immune rejection than embryonic stem cells because of the fact that they are derived entirely from the patient.
Depending on the methods used, reprogramming of adult cells to obtain iPSCs may pose significant risks that could limit its use in humans. For example, if viruses are used to genomically alter the cells, the expression of cancer-causing genes or oncogenes may potentially be triggered. In February 2008, in ground-breaking findings published in the journal Cell, scientists announced the discovery of a technique that could remove oncogenes after the induction of pluripotency, thereby increasing the potential use of iPS cells in human diseases[3]. In April 2009, Sheng Ding and colleagues in La Jolla, California, demonstrated that generation of iPS cells is possible without any genetic alteration of the adult cell: A repeated treatment of the cells with certain proteins channeled into the cells via poly-arginine anchors was sufficient to induce pluripotency. The acronym given for those iPSCs is piPSCs
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