Induced pluripotent stem cell

An induced pluripotent stem cell is a differentiated cell reprogrammed to a pluripotent state, able to produce cell types from all three embryonic germ layers.

Yamanaka factors: A set of transcription factors—Oct4, Sox2, Klf4, and c-Myc—used to reprogram somatic cells into pluripotent cells. Their expression initiated the first widely recognized method for making induced pluripotent stem cells.
Shinya Yamanaka: A Japanese stem-cell biologist who helped establish induced pluripotent stem-cell technology. His group identified factors that reprogrammed mouse and human cells.
Disease modeling: The use of biological systems to reproduce features of a disease and investigate its causes or treatments. Patient-derived cells can be differentiated into disease-relevant cell types for laboratory study.
Embryonic stem cell: A pluripotent cell line derived from the inner cell mass of a blastocyst-stage embryo. Both cell types are pluripotent, but they differ in origin and ethical considerations.
Somatic cell nuclear reprogramming: The resetting of a differentiated cell’s gene-expression program toward an earlier developmental state. Induced pluripotency is one route to reversing a somatic cell’s specialized identity.
Kazutoshi Takahashi: A Japanese stem-cell researcher who co-discovered factor-based induction of pluripotency. He co-authored the experiments that first produced induced pluripotent stem cells from mouse cells.
Organoid: A three-dimensional, self-organizing cell culture that models selected features of an organ. Induced pluripotent stem cells can be differentiated into cells that form organoid models.
Somatic cell nuclear transfer: A technique that places a somatic-cell nucleus into an enucleated egg to reset its developmental program. It can generate pluripotent cells through a different route, requiring an oocyte rather than defined factors alone.
Epigenetic reprogramming: The remodeling of DNA methylation and chromatin states that changes which genes a cell can express. Reprogramming must overcome epigenetic marks that maintain the starting cell’s identity.
2006 mouse induced pluripotent stem-cell study: A study reporting that mouse fibroblasts could be reprogrammed using four transcription factors. It provided the first demonstration that defined factors could induce pluripotency in adult cells.

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