Mechanism of Induction: Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSCs)

Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSCs) are self renewable and can differentiate to different types of adult cells, which has shown great promises in the field of regenerative medicine. iPSCs are reprogrammed from human somatic cells through ectopic expression of various transcription factors viz. Oct4, Sox2, Klf4, and c-Myc (OSKM). This novel technology enables derivation of patient specific cells, which possess a potential cure for many diseases. During the last decade, significant progresses have been achieved in enhancing the reprogramming efficiency, safety of iPSCs derivation, development of different delivery techniques by various research groups. Nevertheless, it is important to resolve and define the mechanism underlying the pluripotent stem cells. Major bottleneck which arises during iPSCs generation is the availability of source material (cells/tissues), difficulty to deliver transcription factors with no aberrant genetic modifications and limited reprogramming efficiency. Reprogramming may be achieved by employing different cocktails with number of different transcription factors, application of miRNA and some small molecules such as (Valproic acid, CHiR99021, Sodium butyrate, Vitamin C, Parnate etc). Similarly, various starting source materials have been demonstrated for iPSC based therapies including fibroblasts, cord blood, peripheral blood, keritinocytes, urine, etc., with their specific uses and limitations. Moreover, with the advent of many new reprogramming techniques, various direct delivery methods have been introduced such as using synthetic mRNA expressing pluripotent gene network has been shown to be an appropriate technique to deliver transcription factors and a dozen of small molecules which can replace transcription factors or enhance reprogramming efficiency. This article addresses the iPSCs technology mechanisms, progresses and current perspectives in the field.