In vitro reprogramming of mouse and human somatic cells to an embryonic state

Embryonic stem (ES) cells are remarkable cells in that they can replicate themselves indefinitely and have the potential to turn into all possible cell type of the body under appropriate environmental conditions. These characteristics make ES cells a unique tool to study development in the culture dish and put them at center stage for regenerative medicine. Two techniques, one called somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) and the other in vitro reprogramming, have shown that adult cells from the mouse can be reverted to an ES like state. In SCNT, adult cell nuclei are transferred into oocytes and allowed to develop as early embryos from which ES cells can be derived, while in the in vitro method four genes are ectopically activated in the adult cell nucleus to induce an embryonic state in the culture dish. Key requirement for both processes is to erase the memory of the adult cell that specifies it as an adult cell and set up the ES cell program. How this happens remains unclear, and if it can be reproduced with human adult cells is an open question. Therefore, we will attempt to use the in vitro reprogramming method to generate human ES cells from adult cells and begin to understand the mechanism of the reprogramming process in both human and mouse cells. In addition to being integral to improving our understanding of how ES cells develop, if successful, this work will provide an important milestone for regenerative medicine. Many debilitating diseases and conditions are caused by damage to cells and tissue. In vitro reprogramming could provide a way to generate patient-specific stem cells that, in culture, could be turned into the type of cell or tissue needed to cure the patient’s disease or injury and transplanted back into the patient’s body. For example, Parkinson’s disease is caused by the loss or destruction of nerve cells. If reprogramming becomes possible, we could take a skin biopsy from a patient with Parkinson’s disease, induce the embryonic state in those skin cells to then be able to turn them into nerve cells and transplant them back into the same donor patient. Reprogramming could also be used to repair spinal cord injuries, allowing people who are paralyzed by accidents to walk again, or be helpful for patients with juvenile diabetes. One important advantage of patient-specific self-transplants is that they obviate the need for immunosuppression, which is often problematic for the patient. In addition, human cell reprogramming could be a new way to study how diseases progress at the cellular level as reprogramming could generate ES cells from patients with complex diseases that can be studied in detail for what makes them go awry during development. This knowledge could speed the search for new treatments and possibly cures for some of the most complex diseases that affect societies. We hope that the knowledge gained from our studies on reprogramming can, someday, support research that will help to put these idea to clinical use.