State of the Art in Stem Cell Research: Human Embryonic Stem Cells, Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells, and Transdifferentiation

Figure 1

Human pluripotent stem cells and their biomedical applications. hESCs are isolated from early embryos obtained by in vitro fertilization or nuclear transfer, and give rise to more specialized cells (pink arrows). Alternatively, reprogramming technologies allow generation of hIPS from differentiated cells, or lineage conversion between differentiated cell types (black arrows). Developmental biology studies are unraveling the characteristics of cell types found at different stages. Stem cells and their differentiated progeny are used in a variety of biomedical applications, such as disease modeling, drug discovery, and regenerative medicine.