Inducing pluripotency in vitro: recent advances and highlights in induced pluripotent stem cells generation and pluripotency reprogramming

摘要

Induced pluripotent stem cells ( s) are considered patient‐specific counterparts of embryonic stem cells as they originate from after forced expression of pluripotency reprogramming factors Oct4, Sox2, Klf4 and c‐Myc. s offer unprecedented opportunity for personalized cell therapies in regenerative medicine. In recent years, technology has undergone substantial improvement to overcome slow and inefficient reprogramming protocols, and to ensure clinical‐grade s and their functional derivatives. Recent developments in technology include better reprogramming methods employing novel delivery systems such as non‐integrating viral and non‐viral vectors, and characterization of alternative reprogramming factors. Concurrently, small chemical molecules (inhibitors of specific signalling or epigenetic regulators) have become crucial to reprogramming; they have the ability to replace putative reprogramming factors and boost reprogramming processes. Moreover, common dietary supplements, such as vitamin C and antioxidants, when introduced into reprogramming media, have been found to improve genomic and epigenomic profiles of s. In this article, we review the most recent advances in the field and potent application of s, in terms of cell therapy and tissue engineering.