[Breakthrough in research on pluripotent stem cells and their application in medicine]

Laeknabladid. 2015 Dec;101(12):581-6. doi: 10.17992/lbl.2015.12.56.
[Article in Icelandic]

Abstract

Embryonic stem cells are, as the name indicates, isolated from embryos. They are pluripotent cells which can be maintained undifferentiated or induced to differentiate into any cell type of the body. In 1998 the first isolation of human embryonic stem cells was successful and they became an interesting source for stem cell regenerative medicine. Only 8 years later pluripotent stem cells were generated by reprogramming somatic cells into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). This was a revolution in the way people thought of cell commitment during development. Since then, a lot of research has been done in understanding the molecular biology of pluripotent stem cells. iPSCs can be generated from somatic cells of a patient and therefore have the same genome. Hence, iPSCs have great potential application in medicine, as they can be utilized in disease modelling, drug screening and cell replacement therapy.

Publication types

  • English Abstract
  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Cell Differentiation
  • Cell Lineage
  • Cell Proliferation
  • Diffusion of Innovation
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic
  • Humans
  • Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells / physiology
  • Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells / transplantation
  • Pluripotent Stem Cells / physiology
  • Pluripotent Stem Cells / transplantation*
  • Regeneration*
  • Regenerative Medicine / methods*