Derivation of human induced pluripotent stem cells for cardiovascular disease modeling

The successful derivation of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) by dedifferentiation of somatic cells offers significant potential to overcome obstacles in the field of cardiovascular disease. hiPSC derivatives offer incredible potential for new disease models and regenerative medicine therapies. However, many questions remain regarding the optimal starting materials and methods to enable safe, efficient derivation of hiPSCs suitable for clinical applications. Initial reprogramming experiments were carried out using lentiviral or retroviral gene delivery methods. More recently, various nonviral methods that avoid permanent and random transgene insertion have emerged as alternatives. These include transient DNA transfection using plasmids or minicircles, protein transduction, or RNA transfection. In addition, several small molecules have been found to significantly augment hiPSC derivation efficiency, allowing the use of a fewer number of genes during pluripotency induction. We review these various methods for the derivation of hiPSCs, focusing on their ultimate clinical applicability, with an emphasis on their potential for use as cardiovascular therapies and disease-modeling platforms.