UMass Chan Affiliations
Department of Cell BiologyDocument Type
Journal ArticlePublication Date
2009-07-28Keywords
Adult Stem CellsBiological Assay
*Cell Differentiation
*Cell Lineage
*Embryo Research
Embryonic Stem Cells
Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental
Humans
*Nuclear Reprogramming
Pluripotent Stem Cells
Reproducibility of Results
Terminology as Topic
Cell Biology
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
With the advent of technologies for the derivation of embryonic stem cells and reprogrammed stem cells, use of the term "pluripotent" has become widespread. Despite its increased scientific and political importance, there are ambiguities with this designation and a common standard for experimental approaches that precisely define this state in human cells remains elusive. Recent studies have revealed that reprogramming may occur via many pathways which do not always lead to pluripotency. In addition, the pluripotent state itself appears to be highly dynamic, leading to significant variability in the results of molecular studies. Establishment of a stringent set of criteria for defining pluripotency will be vital for biological studies and potential clinical applications in this rapidly evolving field. In this review, we explore the various definitions of pluripotency, examine the current status of pluripotency testing in the field and provide an analysis of how these assays have been used to establish pluripotency in the scientific literature.Source
J Cell Physiol. 2009 Jul;220(1):21-9. Link to article on publisher's siteDOI
10.1002/jcp.21681Permanent Link to this Item
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14038/49608PubMed ID
19326392Related Resources
Link to Article in PubMedae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1002/jcp.21681