stem cell tumorigenicity

IPS Cell Immunogenicity, Clinical Insights, & Possible Solutions

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Can cells produced from autologous induced pluripotent stem cell (IPSC or IPS cell) cultures sometimes be immunogenic in patients? This key question has remained somewhat unsettled due to varied findings over the years (e.g. see here), but many of us had generally felt in the last couple years that IPS cell derivative immunogenicity in an …

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Secret Not so Secret Recipe for Safer iPS cells

IPS cells, induced pluripotent stem cells, Knoepfler lab, stained for TRA-1-60, an ES cell marker., where do stem cells come from?

Just how tumorigenic are iPS cells?  The field really doesn’t know at this point. However, a steady stream of papers have raised red flag after red flag about genomic and epigenomic alterations/mutations that are linked to cancer. Of course, then there is the fact that all the genetic changes actually used to make reprogrammed cells …

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The trouble with teratoma: a stem cell paradox

Teratoma

The trouble with the risk of teratoma presents a stem cell paradox. Stem cells possess two traits lacking in other cells: self-renewal and pluripotency. This duo of defining functions is key to the ability of stem cells to be used to treat patients via regenerative medicine. A paradox exists because while self-renewal and pluripotency are both …

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Tumorigenicity and Pluripotency teased apart? Not yet for Myc

Fig.-5-Nakagawa-et-al.-Myc-in-cancer-and-IPScs

A paper just came out in PNAS entitled “Promotion of direct reprogramming by transformation-deficient Myc“. The main thrust of this paper is that the tumorigenic and pluripotency-related functions of Myc could be separated. It focused primarily on the lesser studied LMyc. The topic of the intertwined good (pluripotency) and bad (tumorigenicity) functions of Myc, addressed …

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