Generation of pluripotent stem cells without the use of genetic material

Higuchi A 1 , Ling QD 2 , Kumar SS 3 , Munusamy MA 4 , Alarfaj AA 4 , Chang Y 5 Show all authors , Kao SH 6 , Lin KC 6 , Wang HC 7 , Umezawa A 8

Affiliations 

  • 1 1] Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, National Central University, Jhongli, Taiwan [2] Department of Botany and Microbiology, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
  • 2 1] Institute of Systems Biology and Bioinformatics, National Central University, Jhongli, Taiwan [2] Cathay Medical Research Institute, Cathay General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
  • 3 Department of Medical Microbiology and Parasitology, Universities Putra Malaysia, Slangor, Malaysia
  • 4 Department of Botany and Microbiology, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
  • 5 Department of Chemical Engineering, R&D Center for Membrane Technology, Chung Yuan Christian University, Jhongli, Taiwan
  • 6 Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, National Central University, Jhongli, Taiwan
  • 7 Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Hungchi Women and Children's Hospital, Jhongli, Taiwan
  • 8 Department of Reproduction, National Research Institute for Child Health and Development, Tokyo, Japan
Lab Invest, 2015 Jan;95(1):26-42.
PMID: 25365202 DOI: 10.1038/labinvest.2014.132

Abstract

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) provide a platform to obtain patient-specific cells for use as a cell source in regenerative medicine. Although iPSCs do not have the ethical concerns of embryonic stem cells, iPSCs have not been widely used in clinical applications, as they are generated by gene transduction. Recently, iPSCs have been generated without the use of genetic material. For example, protein-induced PSCs and chemically induced PSCs have been generated by the use of small and large (protein) molecules. Several epigenetic characteristics are important for cell differentiation; therefore, several small-molecule inhibitors of epigenetic-modifying enzymes, such as DNA methyltransferases, histone deacetylases, histone methyltransferases, and histone demethylases, are potential candidates for the reprogramming of somatic cells into iPSCs. In this review, we discuss what types of small chemical or large (protein) molecules could be used to replace the viral transduction of genes and/or genetic reprogramming to obtain human iPSCs.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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