Reprogramming stem cells in regenerative medicine

Abstract

Abstract Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) that are generated from adult somatic cells are induced to express genes that make them pluripotent through reprogramming techniques. With their unlimited proliferative capacity and multifaceted differentiation potential and circumventing the ethical problems encountered in the application of embryonic stem cells (ESC), iPSCs have a broad application in the fields of cell therapy, drug screening, and disease models and may open up new possibilities for regenerative medicine to treat diseases in the future. In this review, we begin with different reprogramming cell technologies to obtain iPSCs, including biotechnological, chemical, and physical modulation techniques, and present their respective strengths, and limitations, as well as the recent progress of research. Secondly, we review recent research advances in iPSC reprogramming‐based regenerative therapies. iPSCs are now widely used to study various clinical diseases of hair follicle defects, myocardial infarction, neurological disorders, liver diseases, and spinal cord injuries. This review focuses on the translational clinical research around iPSCs as well as their potential for growth in the medical field. Finally, we summarize the overall review and look at the potential future of iPSCs in the field of cell therapy as well as tissue regeneration engineering and possible problems. We believe that the advancing iPSC research will help drive long‐awaited breakthroughs in cellular therapy.

Keywords

• cell therapies
• cellular reprogramming
• human disease model
• induced pluripotent stem cells
• tissue regeneration