Translational Prospects for Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

Abstract

The pace of research on human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells is frantic worldwide, based on the enormous therapeutic potential of patient-specific pluripotent cells free of the ethical and political issues that plagued human embryonic stem cell research. iPS cells are now relatively easy to isolate from somatic cells and reprogramming can be accomplished using nonmutagenic technologies. Access to iPS cells is already paying dividends in the form of new disease-in-a-dish models for drug discovery and as scalable sources of cells for toxicology. For translation of cell therapies, the major advantage of iPS cells is that they are autologous, but for many reasons, perfect immunologic tolerance of iPS-based grafts should not be assumed. This article focuses on the functional identity of iPS cells, anticipated safety and technical issues in their application, as well as a survey of the progress likely to be realized in clinical applications in the next decade.

Human iPSC-Derived Neural Crest Stem Cells Promote Tendon Repair in a Rat Patellar Tendon Window Defect Model

“…46 In the present study, we employed a stepwise differentiation protocol to derive multipotent NCSCs from pluripotent iPSCs, and subsequently allowed NCSCs to differentiate into tendon-like cells within tendon niche. As a result, no teratoma was found at 8 weeks after transplantation, which is consistent with our previous study using iPSCNCSCs in a nerve regeneration model.…”

Stem Cell-Based Approaches to Improve Nerve Regeneration: Potential Implications for Reconstructive Transplantation?

“…These include governmental and ethical constraints, as well as the cost of materials (differentiation media, trained staff, facilities costs, etc.). Furthermore, there are regulatory concerns over the safety of undifferentiated cells that can form teratomas, migrate or differentiate unpredictably in a diseased environment, and the lack of imaging technologies to follow transplanted cells (Csete 2010).…”

“…Thus, iPS cells hold great potential for providing a source of patient-specific SCs from simple somatic cells (Csete 2010).…”

The Pharmacology of Regenerative Medicine

“…Great basic and practical hurdles remain to be overcome before the iPS cell technology and adjuncts such as the correction of genetic defects can be implemented at a meaningful scale in human medicine. Nevertheless, the overall promise of reprogramming cells to enable autologous therapies for regenerative medicine is spectacular (Nishikawa et al, 2008;Csete, 2010;Okita and Yamanaka, 2011;Ji et al, 2012;Robinton and Daley, 2012).…”