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  • Biotechnology

Published online: 12 August 2009 | doi:10.1038/nchina.2009.160

Stem cells: Full pluripotency

Felix Cheung

Introduction

© (2009) Elsevier

Uniting a sperm and an egg used to be the only way to produce a baby. However, the emergence of stem cell research and related technologies has provided other alternatives, including the use of stem cells derived from embryos (embryonic stem cells, or ES cells) to produce live animals. Now, Shaorong Gao and co-workers at the National Institute of Biological Sciences in Beijing¹ have demonstrated that stem cells derived from mouse fibroblasts (induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells) are as capable as ES cells of generating live mice.

The researchers used the conventional method — forced expression of the four transcription factors Oct4, Sox2, Klf4 and c-Myc — to reprogram mouse fibroblasts into iPS cells. The morphology, gene expression profile and differentiation ability of the iPS cells were similar to those of ES cells.

The researchers therefore decided to test whether their iPS cells were capable of generating live mice. They injected the iPS cells into 'tetraploid' embryos, and then transferred the embryos to a surrogate mother mouse. The mother mouse eventually gave birth to live pups, one of which has survived into adulthood and appears to be healthy (pictured).

The finding serves as a proof of principle that iPS cells are capable of generating live mice.

The authors of this work are from:
Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China; National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing, China.

Reference

1. Kang, L., Wang, J., Zhang, Y., Kou, Z. & Gao, S. iPS cells can support full-term development of tetraploid blastocyst-complemented embryos. Cell Stem Cell doi:10.1016/j.stem.2009.07.001 (2009). | Article |