A safer source of stem cells?

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) can be generated using mouse embryonic cells without viral integration into the mouse genome, and the resulting iPS cells share many features associated with embryonic stem cells, researchers report in the Oct. 9 issue of Science. This finding represents an important step toward studying patient-specific cells and associated disease, along with the future application of iPS cell technology in regenerative medicine and other clinical uses. Keisuke Okita and colleagues bypassed viral integration, which often causes tumors in animal MODELS, and utilized a novel method of plasmid transfection to generate their mouse iPS cells. The researchers say that although their results represent a major step forward, it is still much less efficient to generate iPS cells in this manner relative to the earlier method using retroviral vectors. In addition, future work is needed to generate human iPS cells by this method.

ARTICLE #19: "Generation of Mouse Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Without Viral Vectors," by K. Okita; M. Nakagawa; H. Hyenjong; T. Ichisaka; S. Yamanaka at Kyoto University in Kyoto, Japan; T. Ichisaka at Japan Science and Technology Agency in Kawaguchi, Japan; S. Yamanaka at Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease in San Francisco, CA.