A review on successful approaches of converting adult somatic cells into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs)

Abstract

The induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are referred to as patient-specific equivalents of embryonic stem cells for the reason that they originate from somatic cells once the forced expression of pluripotency reprogramming factors Oct4, Sox2, Klf4 and c‐Myc are introduced. Moreover, iPSCs present exceptional opportunity for personalized cell therapies and thus play a major role in the field of regenerative medicine. In current years, iPSC technology has undergone significant development to conquer time-consuming and ineffective “reprogramming protocols” and to guarantee clinical-grade iPSCs and their functional derivatives. Latest improvements in iPSC technology incorporate better reprogramming methods utilizing novel delivery systems such as non‐integrating viral and non‐viral vectors, using mRNAs of defined factors, using microRNAs, cell extracts and recently the ground-breaking discovery of the method in which the cells activate their own genes to revert back to pluripotency. At the same time, as small chemical molecules, inhibitors of specific signaling or epigenetic regulators have become fundamental to iPSC reprogramming; they have the capability to substitute recognized reprogramming factors and further advance the reprogramming processes. Additionally, characterization of iPSCs has also been mentioned in this review for assessing the effectiveness and accuracy of the discussed reprogramming methods. Hence, in this piece of writing, we review the most up to date inventions of techniques in the iPSC field, a summary of all the various methods that had been employed by scientists over the past years for attaining iPSCs and the probable application of iPSCs, in the fields of cell therapy and tissue engineering.