Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, Utah 84132-3401, USA.
Stem Cells Dev. 2010 Aug;19(8):1121-9. doi: 10.1089/scd.2009.0482.
Stem cell researchers in the United States continue to face an uncertain future, because of the changing federal guidelines governing this research, the restrictive patent situation surrounding the generation of new human embryonic stem cell lines, and the ethical divide over the use of embryos for research. In this commentary, we describe how recent advances in the derivation of induced pluripotent stem cells and the isolation of germ-line-derived pluripotent stem cells resolve a number of these uncertainties. The availability of patient-matched, pluripotent stem cells that can be obtained by ethically acceptable means provides important advantages for stem cell researchers, by both avoiding protracted ethical debates and giving U.S. researchers full access to federal funding. Thus, ethically uncompromised stem cells, such as those derived by direct reprogramming or from germ-cell precursors, are likely to yield important advances in stem cell research and move the field rapidly toward clinical applications.
美国的干细胞研究人员继续面临不确定的未来，这是因为联邦指导方针的变化，以及新的人类胚胎干细胞系生成方面的专利限制，还有对胚胎用于研究的伦理分歧。在这篇评论中，我们描述了诱导多能干细胞的最新进展以及生殖细胞衍生的多能干细胞的分离如何解决了许多这些不确定性。通过符合伦理要求的手段获得与患者匹配的多能干细胞，为干细胞研究人员提供了重要的优势，既避免了旷日持久的伦理争论，又使美国研究人员能够全面获得联邦资金。因此，通过直接重编程或生殖细胞前体获得的合乎伦理的干细胞，可能会推动干细胞研究取得重要进展，并使该领域迅速向临床应用推进。
