Stem Cells International
Volume 2011, Article ID 619583, 11 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.4061/2011/619583
Generation of Induced Pluripotent Stem (iPS) Cells by Nuclear Reprogramming
Aesthetic and Plastic Surgery Institute, University of California, Irvine, Orange, CA 92868, USA
Received 16 March 2011; Revised 18 June 2011; Accepted 22 June 2011
Academic Editor: Mark G. Carter
Copyright © 2011 Dilip Dey and Gregory R. D. Evans. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
During embryonic development pluripotency is progressively lost irreversibly by cell division, differentiation, migration and organ formation. Terminally differentiated cells do not generate other kinds of cells. Pluripotent stem cells are a great source of varying cell types that are used for tissue regeneration or repair of damaged tissue. The pluripotent stem cells can be derived from inner cell mass of blastocyte but its application is limited due to ethical concerns. The recent discovery of iPS with defined reprogramming factors has initiated a flurry of works on stem cell in various laboratories. The pluripotent cells can be derived from various differentiated adult cells as well as from adult stem cells by nuclear reprogramming, somatic cell nuclear transfer etc. In this review article, different aspects of nuclear reprogramming are discussed.