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Somatic cell reprogramming for regenerative medicine: SCNT vs. iPS cells
Author(s) -
Pan Guangjin,
Wang Tao,
Yao Hongjie,
Pei Duanqing
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
bioessays
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.175
H-Index - 184
eISSN - 1521-1878
pISSN - 0265-9247
DOI - 10.1002/bies.201100174
Subject(s) - reprogramming , somatic cell nuclear transfer , induced pluripotent stem cell , somatic cell , regenerative medicine , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , embryonic stem cell , stem cell , genetics , cell , embryo , blastocyst , embryogenesis , gene
Reprogramming of somatic cells to a pluripotent state holds huge potentials for regenerative medicine. However, a debate over which method is better, somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) or induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, still persists. Both approaches have the potential to generate patient‐specific pluripotent stem cells for replacement therapy. Yet, although SCNT has been successfully applied in various vertebrates, no human pluripotent stem cells have been generated by SCNT due to technical, legal and ethical difficulties. On the other hand, human iPS cell lines have been reported from both healthy and diseased individuals. A recent study reported the generation of triploid human pluripotent stem cells by transferring somatic nuclei into oocytes, a variant form of SCNT. In this essay, we discuss this progress and the potentials of these two reprogramming approaches for regenerative medicine.