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British Medical Bulletin Advance Access originally published online on April 17, 2009
British Medical Bulletin 2009 90(1):19-35; doi:10.1093/bmb/ldp011
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Cellular reprogramming and pluripotency induction

M. William Lensch*

Division of Hematology/Oncology, Children's Hospital Boston, Boston, MA 02115, USA

* Correspondence to: M. William Lensch, Division of Hematology/Oncology, Children's Hospital Boston, Karp Building, One Blackfan Circle, Boston, MA 02115, USA. E-mail: Mathew.Lensch{at}childrens.harvard.edu

Introduction: Cellular reprogramming is the process of directing mature cells to a primitive state of gene expression.

Sources of data: Medline searches using the keywords ‘pluripotency’, ‘induce’ (and derivatives), and/or ‘stem’ limited to the years 2006 to the present and other selected literature known to the author.

Areas of agreement: Since 2006, there has been a cavalcade of scientific works describing so-called ‘direct reprogramming’ wherein somatic cells are forced into a state of gene expression very similar to embryonic stem cells. These findings build upon prior research using nuclear transfer (cloning) and even older efforts to understand developmental processes.

Areas of controversy: While already of tremendous research value, it remains to be seen how (if) direct reprogramming methodologies will be refined for clinical use.

Areas timely for developing research: A greater understanding of epigenetics, the process by which different patterns of gene expression are established, maintained and redirected, will continue to be enlightened by advances in cellular reprogramming.

Keywords: cellular reprogramming • induced pluripotency • stem cells • iPS cells

Accepted for publication March 26, 2009.


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