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Stem cells

Surf the waves of reprogramming

Nature volume 493, pages 310–311 (2013)Cite this article

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Cellular reprogramming to a stem-cell-like state is inefficient and poorly understood, despite its biomedical potential. Detailed molecular analyses of this process are now reported, and should help to overcome these limitations.

Induced pluripotent stem cells can generate all tissues of the adult organism and — unlike embryonic stem cells — their generation does not have ethical implications1. They are thus invaluable for research, and have great potential for use in regenerative medicine and drug discovery. The precise molecular mechanisms that underlie the reprogramming of differentiated cells to induced pluripotent stem cells remain largely unknown. Three papers2,3,4, published in Cell and Cell Reports, provide the most comprehensive analysis yet of the molecular dynamics that bring about this process. This work may not only guide the design of improved reprogramming approaches, leading to increased efficiency, but also allow the generation of higher-quality stem cells. Most intriguingly, we think that the demonstration that the cells transit through distinct intermediate states is an elegant indication that reprogramming proceeds in an inverse manner to the process of embryonic development.

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Figure 1: Waves of molecular events underlie cellular reprogramming2,3,4.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ignacio Sancho-Martinez and Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte are at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, California 92037, USA, and at the Center of Regenerative Medicine, in Barcelona, Spain.,

    Ignacio Sancho-Martinez & Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte

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  1. Ignacio Sancho-Martinez
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  2. Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte
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Correspondence to Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte.

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Sancho-Martinez, I., Belmonte, J. Surf the waves of reprogramming. Nature 493, 310–311 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/493310b

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