Sensitivity of human embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells to a topoisomerase II poison etoposide.

摘要

Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are characterized by self-renewal, immortality and pluripotency. Since the time of obtaining the first hESC line in 1998, hundreds of hESC lines have been generated. Human ESCs have been proclaimed a unique tool for biomedical applications, such as cell replacement therapy, developmental biology, drug discovery and disease modeling. Usage of human ESCs, however, is restricted by certain ethical considerations and problems of immune response. That is why the new type of plu-ripotent cells generated in the mid-2000s2 is becoming more and more promising for both research and clinical applications. Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which are obtained by reprogramming somatic cells to pluripotent state, can be generated from differentiated cells by ecto-pic expression of core transcription factors, known to be required for maintenance of pluripotency and proliferation of embryonic stem cells. iPSCs exhibit similar features to embryonic stem cells, including cell morphology, cell surface markers, growth properties, telomerase activity and epigenetic marks, and, most importantly, they can give rise to cells derived from all three germ layers (for review see Patel and Yang).