Pluripotent stem cells only exist in a narrow window during early embryonic development, whereas multipotent stem cells are abundant throughout embryonic development and are retained in various adult tissues and organs. While pluripotent stem cell lines have been established from several species, including mouse, rat, and human, it is still challenging to establish stable multipotent stem cell ...

Understanding the regulation of cell-cell interactions during the formation of compact myocardial structures is important for achieving true cardiac regeneration through enhancing the integration of stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes into the recipient myocardium. In this study, we found that cellular repressor of E1A-stimulated genes 1 (CREG1) is highly expressed in both embryonic and adult hear...

Mouse embryonic stem cells are continuous cell lines derived directly from the fetal founder tissue of the preimplantation embryo. They can be expanded in culture while retaining the functional attributes of pluripotent early embryo cells. In particular, they can participate fully in fetal development when reintroduced into the embryo. The capacity for multilineage differentiation is reproduced...

Induced pluripotent stem cell technology makes in vitro reprogramming of somatic cells from individuals with various genetic backgrounds possible. By applying this technology, it is possible to produce pluripotent stem cells from biopsy samples of arbitrarily selected individuals with various genetic backgrounds and to subsequently maintain, expand, and stock these cells. From these induced plu...

multiple sclerosis is an inflammatory disease of the central nervous system in which t cells experience a second phase of activation, which ultimately leads to axonal demyelination and neurological disability. the recent advances in stem cell therapies may serve as potential treatments for neurological disorders. there are broad types of stem cells such as neural, embryonic, mesenchymal and hem...

Germ cells possess the unique ability to acquire totipotency during development in vivo as well as give rise to pluripotent stem cells under the appropriate conditions in vitro. Recent studies in which somatic cells were experimentally converted into pluripotent stem cells revealed that genes expressed in primordial germ cells (PGCs), such as Oct3/4, Sox2, and Lin28, are involved in this reprog...

How has the development of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) modified the trajectory of stem cell research? Here, coauthorship networks of stem cell research articles and analysis of cell lines used in stem cell research indicate that hiPSCs are not replacing human embryonic stem cells, but instead, the two cell types are complementary, interdependent research tools. Thus, we conclu...

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) hold great potential for regenerative medicine, yet their implementation in the clinic still seems far out of reach due to concerns about their safety. The development of safe and efficient reprogramming methods is a critical step towards clinical application of iPSCs. Recently, much progress has been made in the technology of generating iPSCs that are fre...

Developing effective drug therapies for arrhythmic diseases is hampered by the fact that the same drug can work well in some individuals but not in others. Human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells have been vetted as useful tools for drug screening. However, cardioactive drugs have not been shown to have the same effects on iPS cell-derived human cardiomyocytes as on embryonic stem (ES) cell-...

Introduction Generation of functional cells from human pluripotent stem cells is the key for their application. Here, we review representative differentiation protocols of human pluripotent stem cells into neural and cardiac lineages. These protocols can be divided into three groups: embryoid body formation, monolayer culture and coculture with stromal cells. The former two are the mainstream m...