Non-integrating Methods to Produce Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells for Regenerative Medicine: An Overview

Abstract

Induced Pluripotent Stem cells (iPSC) are adult somatic cells genetically reprogrammed to an embryonic stem cell-like state. Due to their autologous origin from adult somatic cells, iPSCs are considered a tremendously valuable tool for regenerative medicine, disease modeling, drug discovery and testing. iPSCs were first obtained by introducing specific transcription factors through retroviral transfection. However, cell reprogramming obtained by integrating methods prevent clinical application of iPSC because of potential risk for infection, teratomas and genomic instability. Therefore, several integration-free alternate methods have been developed and tested thus far to overcome safety issues. The present chapter provides an overview and a critical analysis of advantages and disadvantages of non-integrating methods used to generate iPSCs.