Selected small molecules as inducers of pluripotency

The general idea of regenerative medicine is to fix or replace tissues or organs with live and patient-specific implants. Pluripotent stem cells are capable of indefinite self-renewal and differentiation into all cell types of the body. An easily accessible source of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) may allow obtaining and culturing tissues in vitro. Many approaches in the methods leading to obtain iPSCs have been tested in order to limit immunogenicity and tumorigenesis, and to increase efficiency. One of the approaches causing pluripotency is usage of small molecule compounds. It would be of great importance to assess their specific properties and reveal their new capacity to induce pluripotent stem cells and to improve reprogramming efficiency. Identification of the epigenetic changes during cellular reprogramming will extend our understanding of stem cell biology and many therapeutic applications. In this paper we discuss mainly the nucleotide derivatives, already proven or for now only putative inducers of the cells' pluripotency, that modulate the epigenetic status of the cell.