Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSC) and Their Use in Disease Modeling

This paper reviews methodologies for culturing induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and highlights their applications in disease modeling and regenerative medicine. iPSCs can be reprogrammed from multiple somatic cell sources, including keratinocytes, fibroblasts, peripheral blood mononuclear cells, and urinary epithelial cells. Their ability to differentiate into patient-specific cell types provides unique opportunities to model neurodegenerative, cardiovascular, metabolic, and autoimmune disorders in vitro. Pluripotency is typically induced by the overexpression of four canonical transcription factors-Oct4, Sox2, Klf4, and c-Myc. iPSC culture is technically demanding, as the cells display genomic and epigenetic instability and require tightly controlled microenvironmental conditions to maintain viability and pluripotency. Rigorous quality control, including PCR-based assays and genomic integrity analyses, is essential. Advances in iPSC technology have enabled personalized disease modeling, mechanistic studies of pathogenesis, drug screening, and the development of precision therapies. Despite their translational promise, iPSCs remain limited by issues of genomic instability, clinical safety, and the lack of standardized culture protocols.