Advances in understanding the cell types and approaches used for generating induced pluripotent stem cells

Successfully reprogramming somatic cells to a pluripotent state generates induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells (or iPSCs), which have extensive self-renewal capacity like embryonic stem cells (ESCs). iPSCs can also generate daughter cells that can further undergo differentiation into various lineages or terminally differentiate to reach their final functional state. The discovery of how to produce iPSCs opened a new field of stem cell research with both intellectual and therapeutic benefits. The huge potential implications of disease-specific or patient-specific iPSCs have impelled scientists to solve problems hindering their applications in clinical medicine, especially the issues of convenience and safety. To determine the range of tissue types amenable to reprogramming as well as their particular characteristics, cells from three embryonic germ layers have been assessed, and the advantages that some tissue origins have over fibroblast origins concerning efficiency and accessibility have been elucidated. To provide safe iPSCs in an efficient and convenient way, the delivery systems and combinations of inducing factors as well as the chemicals used to generate iPSCs have also been significantly improved in addition to the efforts on finding better donor cells. Currently, iPSCs can be generated without c-Myc and Klf4 oncogenes, and non-viral delivery integration-free chemically mediated reprogramming methods have been successfully employed with relatively satisfactory efficiency. This paper will review recent advances in iPS technology by highlighting tissue origin and generation of iPSCs. The obstacles that need to be overcome for clinical applications of iPSCs are also discussed.