Clinical Research Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington 98109-1024, USA.
Mol Ther. 2011 Sep;19(9):1667-75. doi: 10.1038/mt.2011.51. Epub 2011 May 17.
The development of technology to generate induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells constitutes one of the most exciting scientific breakthroughs because of the enormous potential for regenerative medicine. However, the safety of iPS cell-related products is a major concern for clinical translation. Insertional mutagenesis, possible oncogenic transformation of iPS cells or their derivatives, or the contamination of differentiated iPS cells with undifferentiated cells, resulting in the formation of teratomas, have remained considerable obstacles. Here, we demonstrate the utility of suicide genes to safeguard iPS cells and their derivatives. We found suicide genes can control the cell fate of iPS cells in vitro and in vivo without interfering with their pluripotency and self-renewal capacity. This study will be useful to evaluate the safety of iPS cell technology in a clinically highly relevant, large animal model and further benefit the clinical use of human iPS cells.
诱导多能干细胞（iPS）技术的发展是最令人兴奋的科学突破之一，因为它具有巨大的再生医学潜力。然而，iPS 细胞相关产品的安全性是临床转化的主要关注点。插入突变、iPS 细胞或其衍生物的可能致癌转化，或分化的 iPS 细胞被未分化细胞污染，导致畸胎瘤的形成，仍然是相当大的障碍。在这里，我们证明了自杀基因在保护 iPS 细胞及其衍生物方面的效用。我们发现自杀基因可以在不干扰 iPS 细胞多能性和自我更新能力的情况下，控制 iPS 细胞在体外和体内的细胞命运。这项研究将有助于在临床高度相关的大动物模型中评估 iPS 细胞技术的安全性，并进一步促进人类 iPS 细胞的临床应用。
