Induced pluripotent stem cells iPSCs

Cell transplantation has shown promise as a method for treating serious diseases. Various kinds of pluripotent stem cells have been developed or identified, including embryonic stem cells (ESCs), induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), and mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). Moreover, the differentiation of stem cells to functional cells has been extensively studied. Previous studies have demonstrated that the transplantation of islet of Langerhans cells (islets) could successfully treat type 1 diabetes. Islets are insulin-secreting cells found in the pancreas. Over 200 patients... 

Fig. 4 Using Human Pluripotent Stem Cells for Disease Modeling. Patient-specific somatic cells (e.g. skin fibroblasts) can be reprogrammed into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) using specific genetic factors. Neuronal cells with specific disease phenotypes can be differentiated to neural stem cells. The development of in vitro cellular models based on patient-specific cells may lead to personalized medicine approaches with minimal side effects and improved pharmacological efficacy.

A myriad of different cell types are available for screening, ranging from immortalized lines, primary and native-like cells to induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) . Coupled to this choice is an equally diverse range of material availability, ease of use, and cost of goods. Depending on how one might want to measure the phenotype, modify the cells, or bias the assay, many molecular... 

Cell-based assays typically apply primary cell lines [71], immortalized cell lines [72], engineered cell lines [73], and specific cell types differentiated from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) derived from patients or normal human cells [74]. The throughput of cell-based screening has been greatly improved with advances in new assay technologies, which allows cell-based assays to be miniaturized to allow the rapid screening of large chemical libraries. 

The questions that needs to be answered with ES-derived cell therapies are in general whether they have been purified sufficiently to reduce the risk of tumor formation in humans, whether immune suppression will be required (as existing human ESC lines have limited ethnic and immunological diversity (Laurent et al. 2010)), and whether they can be generated in sufficient number for human therapies. Some of these issues, such as immunological compatibility can be addressed through the use of inducible pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which are described below. 

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