![Research published in Science this month has shown that pluripotent cells can be generated from skin cells using nothing but a cocktail of chemicals. The […]](/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/NEWSICON2-620x300.png "One step closer to effective personalised medicine?")
Research published in Science this month has shown that pluripotent cells can be generated from skin cells using nothing but a cocktail of chemicals. The scientists from Peking University, Beijing, are amongst the many researchers who have been working towards this goal for several years. Patient-specific pluripotent cells have the ability to differentiate into any cell type and could be used in diverse medical applications, from treating degenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s to use in transplantation therapies.
Due to the many challenges facing the use of embryonic stem cells (ESCs), the discovery in 2006 that activating just four genes could reprogramme differentiated cells into a pluripotent state was a welcome one. This method could provide unlimited patient-specific stem cells, known as induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). However, reprogramming approaches used so far may be inappropriate clinically with a chemical approach, that is both non-immunogenic and reversible, being more realistic.
Although previous studies have used chemical approaches to reduce the number of genes that need to be targeted during reprogramming, the Peking University project is the first to generate iPSCs solely using chemicals. Building on previous work, the authors screened 10,000 small-molecules in mouse skin cells and found that a blend of seven specific compounds was the most effective for generating iPSCs; they named their creations chemically induced pluripotent stem cells (CiPSCs). Importantly, the CiPSCs retained an ESC-like morphology and were deemed pluripotent using a range of well-defined standards, for example their gene expression profiles resembled those of ESCs.
This research brings us one step closer to generating cells which could realistically be used in personalised regenerative medicine. With the approval of the world’s first clinical trial testing the safety of iPSCs just last month, the widespread clinical use of iPSCs may revolutionise medicine sooner than we think.
