From One-Cell to Tissue: Reprogramming, Cell Differentiation and Tissue Engineering

zhang, donghui ; jiang, wei;

Adult somatic cells can be reprogrammed into pluripotent stem cells, which can indefinitely proliferate in a dish and differentiate into almost all the cell types that constitute the human body. These cells hold great promise for cell therapy and regenerative medicine, as well as drug screening and disease modeling. Theoretically, we can create a source of versatile, therapeutic cells that could be genetically matched to any patient. These pluripotent stem cells can be differentiated into desired cell types and eventually used to reconstruct a tissue or an organ with insights gained from tissue engineering. Inspired by the pioneering work in stem cells, particularly the remarkable reprogramming technique, the fields of regenerative medicine and tissue engineering have advanced rapidly in the past several years. Here recent progress in the fields of induced pluripotent stem cells and tissue engineering is reviewed, with a focus on applications in medicine.