Induced pluripotent stem cell
The dynamic development of science offers more and more opportunities to improve the quality of life. Recently, stem cells are among the most popular and intensely researched areas of research. A particularly interesting group are induced pluripotent stem cells, which, according to many scientists, are the future of the biomedical sciences and modern therapies in regenerative medicine.
Induced pluripotent stem cells are one of the hottest topics. These are cells that we can get from laboratory animals and patients (in a less invasive way). Simple Jets: a small biopsy, such as: a small piece of skin taken during the operation or the tip of the tail of the mouse. The fibroblasts are removed from the collected cells; cells with embryonic cell properties (pluripotent cells that can differentiate into any type of tissue) can be reproduced and standardized.
Cell differentiation is one of the basic molecular processes that contribute to the maintenance of homeostasis throughout the body. IPSCs are cells that can differentiate into every tissue of the adult body. The discovery of the molecular mechanism of cell differentiation has found application in the generation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) from somatic cells. A good source of such cells and their ease of culture under in vitro conditions, among other things, allow to get deficient tissue for regenerative medicine.
Induced pluripotent stem cells have appeared relatively new in the scientific world, but we can already talk about several significant achievements in this field of research, with the Nobel Prize 2012 at the forefront of medicine or physiology.
However, there is an area where the use of iPS cells is basically available: the use of these cells to study the pathogenic mechanisms of diseases. This can be done by deducting cell lines from each patient, who, for example, has a specific mutation in their genotype. Then you can verify how a given medication corrects the altered functions of a particular patient's cell, in that particular person. It can be presented very soon.
IPS cells can be widely used in regenerative medicine and used, for example, for the regeneration of damaged organs. This is the future, although the first attempt to treat macular degeneration (related to age, loss of vision in the elderly) has already been carried out in Japan.
IPSCs were described for the first time in 2006 in mice and in 2007 in humans. The great thing about this technology is that hundreds of teams were able to repeat the entire protocol and get the results that were achieved in the laboratory for the first time. This is very important: the development of a reliable and repeatable research method. When we think about using them in the Clinic of Regenerative Medicine, after its earlier differentiation to the desired tissue, of course, it is better to use cells that have been reprogrammed to exclude introduced genes or to use genetic products or low molecular weight compounds. This reprogramming with proteins (instead of viral transduction) was used in this clinical trial in Japan. Equally important is the ability to deviate from the original viral vectors integrated into the genome for episomal temporal gene expression, or even better, for the use of their products: proteins or microRNA. The genes most commonly used for the production of iPS cells contain genes associated with carcinogens. Its use for the reprogramming of iPS even using retroviral or lentivirus vectors integrated into the genome is not problematic when considering the use of iPS in vitro, for example for drug testing.