Recent advances in iPSC technologies involving cardiovascular and neurodegenerative disease modeling

Cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases are the most common health threats in developed countries. Limited cell derivation and cell number in cardiac tissue makes it difficult to study the cardiovascular disease using the existing cardiac cell model. Regarding the neurodegenerative disorders, the most potential sources of cell therapeutics such as fetal-derived primary neurons and human embryonic stem cells (ESCs) are associated with ethical or technical limitations. The successful derivation of human-induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) by de-differentiation of somatic cells offers significant potential to overcome hurdles in the field of the replacement therapy. Human iPSCs are functionally similar to human embryonic stem cells, and can be derived autologously without the ethical challenges associated with human ESCs. The iPSCs can, in turn, be differentiated into all cell types including neurons, cardiac cells, blood and liver cells, etc. Recently, target tissues derived from human iPSCs such as cardiomyocytes (CMs) or neurons have been used for new disease modeling and regenerative medicine therapies. Diseases models could be advantageous in the development of personalized medicine of various pathological conditions. This paper reviews efforts aimed at both the practical development of iPSCs, differentiation to neural/cardiac lineages, and the further use of these iPSCs-derived cells for disease modeling, as well as drug toxicity testing.