Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
The principle of induced pluripotency was first documented by a
research team led by Shinya Yamanaka at Kyoto University in Japan
(Takahashi and Yamanaka, 2006; Baker, 2009). In this first study,
adult cells from mice were reverse engineered into a pluripotent
state, but were not permitted to develop any further (Takahashi and
Yamanaka, 2006; Baker, 2009). In a follow-up experiment a year
later, the same team were able to document that these cells progressed
into the same kinds of cell lines generated by embryonic stem cells
(Takahashi et al., 2007; Baker, 2009). Competition in iPSC research
has been strong, with the same team that originally derived hESCs
publishing a similar, independent study demonstrating the viability
of iPS cells at the same time as the study demonstrating that they
could be developed into cell lines was published (Yu et al., 2007;
Baker, 2009). iPSC research has subsequently expanded globally,
with research teams working quickly to establish the key principles
of iPS cell development.
iPS cells emerged in the context of ongoing research on pluripotency,
cell culturing and embryonic cell biology (Stadtfeld and Hochedlinger,
2010). Experiments on nuclear transfer conducted in the 1950s and
later were foundational in establishing the idea that even fully
mature cells contained sufficient genetic information to produce a
whole organism (Stadtfeld and Hochedlinger, 2010). Likewise,
embryonal carcinoma cell studies involving fusing these cells with
somatic cells also provided key foundational knowledge about how
pluripotency must be attainable because in the hybrid cells produced
in these experiments, pluripotency was shown to dominate (Stadtfeld
and Hochedlinger, 2010). Also, the factors that have been identified
as important for producing cell differentiation along certain pathways
have also been proven to show that these pathways are not
necessarily one way (Stadtfeld and Hochedlinger, 2010).
The original iPSC work was based on a series of experiments in
which specific genes were identified that could be most useful in the
creation of pluripotency (Stadtfeld and Hochedlinger, 2010).
A group of genes that could induce pluripotency in somatic cells
were detected, although limitations in the equivalency of these
induced pluripotent cells with embryonic cells has triggered continual
refinement of the identification of the 'transcription factors' most
