Reprogramming of dermal fibroblasts to induced pluripotent stem cells and cardiomyocytes

Abstract

Reprogramming of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells has been successfully achieved from mouse and human somatic cells. iPS cells have the capability of indefinite self-renewal and can be differentiated into almost all cell types of the body. This makes them a valuable tool for studying developmental biology, modeling of human genetic diseases, and investigating their therapeutic potential. Specifically, human iPS cells were reprogrammed from dermal fibroblasts from patients with heart diseases, and used to generate patient-specific cardiomyocytes, which have termendous applications in biomedical research, drug development, and clinical practice. © 2013 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.