In the Abstract: ‘‘Further, we show that hiPSCs cultured with CCL2 can differentiate at a higher efficiency than culturing with just bFGF and we show CCL2 can be used in feeder-free conditions in the absence of LIF’’ should read ‘‘Further, we show that hiPSCs cultured withCCL2 can differentiate at a higher efficiency than culturing with just bFGF and we show CCL2 can be used in feeder-free cond...

The ability to preselect the donor genotype of iPSC lines provides important opportunities for immune matching in cell therapy. Here we propose that an international assessment should be made of how immune incompatibility can best be managed and how a network of GMP HLA homozygous haplobanks could be operated.

Following the discovery of pluripotent stem (PS) cells such as embryonic stem (ES) and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, there has been a great hope that injured tissues can be repaired by transplantation of ES/iPS-derived various specific types of cells such as neural stem cells (NSCs). Although PS cells can be induced by ectopic expression of Yamanaka's factors, it is known that several s...

Pluripotent stem cells have become powerful tools for both research and regenerative medicine. To date, however, only mouse and rat embryonic stem cells (ESCs)/induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) have the ability to contribute to the formation of germline-competent chimeras. These stem cells are thus considered as 'naïve' pluripotent stem cells. Several signaling pathways have been identifie...

Pluripotent stem cells have the capacity to divide indefinitely and to differentiate into all somatic cells and tissue lines. They can be genetically manipulated in vitro by knocking genes in or out, and therefore serve as an excellent tool for gene function studies and for the generation of models for some human diseases. Since 1981, when the first mouse embryonic stem cell (ESC) line was gene...

Effects of antioxidants on the quality and genomic stability of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells were investigated with two human iPS cell lines (201B7 and 253G1). Cells used in this study were expanded from a single colony of each cell line with the addition of proprietary antioxidant supplement or homemade antioxidant cocktail in medium, and maintained in parallel for 2 months. The cells ...

Aging is accompanied by the functional decline of cells, tissues, and organs, as well as a striking increase in a wide range of diseases. The reprogramming of somatic cells to induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) opens new avenues for the aging field and has important applications for therapeutic treatments of age-related diseases. Here we review emerging studies on how aging and age-related ...

Savithri Balasubramanian,* Satya K. Kota, and M. Todd Valerius *Department of Medicine, Transplant Institute, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts; Institute of Molecular Genetics, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Montpelier, France; Department of Surgery, Transplant Institute, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical Scho...

Induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (IPS-CM) are considered by many to be the cornerstone of future approaches to repair the diseased heart. However, current methods for producing IPS-CM typically yield highly variable populations with low batch-to-batch reproducibility. The underlying reasons for this are not fully understood. Here we report on a systematized approach to inves...

Compared with other medical fields, psychiatry is particularly challenging for rational drug discovery. The therapeutic endpoints are abstract measures of cognitive and behavioral performance, for which we have a very limited understanding of the underlying biological mechanisms. Existing preclinical disease models are also limited in their translational fidelity. Recently, there have been acti...