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Updated: May 28, 2026

Epigenetic Conversion as a Safe and Simple Method to Obtain Insulin-secreting Cells from Adult Skin Fibroblasts
Published on: March 18, 2016
Transient in vitro epigenetic reprogramming of skin fibroblasts into multipotent cells
Xiang-Qing Zhu1, Xing-Hua Pan, Weibo Wang
1The Research Center of Stem Cell, Tissue and Organ Engineering, Kunming Army General Hospital, Kunming 650032, PR China.
Abstract:
Multipotent stem cells have the potential to establish a new field of promising regenerative medicine to treat tissue damage, genetic disorders, and degenerative diseases. However, limited resource of stem cells has turned to be an evitable obstacle in clinical applications. We utilized a simple in vitro epigenetic reprogramming approach to convert skin fibroblasts into multipotent cells. After transient reprogramming, stem cell markers, including Oct4 and Nanog, became activated in the treated cells. The reprogrammed cells were multipotent as demonstrated by their ability to differentiate into a variety of cells and to form teratomas. Genomic imprinting of insulin-like growth factor II (Igf2) and H19 was not affected by this short period of cell reprogramming. This study may provide an alternative strategy to efficiently generate patient-specific stem cells for basic and clinical research, solving major hurdles of virally-induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells that entail the potential risks of mutation, gene instability, and malignancy.
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