🔬iPS cells

What are IPS cells?

'iPS cell' is an acronym for the English name 'induced pluripotent stem cell.' Professor Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University was the one who first developed iPS cells, and he received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2012 for the discovery.

iPS cells are generated with a technology that genetically manipulates matured cells into pluripotent stem cells. Because of this, it has fewer ethical issues and is expected to have a wide range of applications.

iPS cells have the following three main characteristics:

1. It can theoretically be produced from any cell in the body. Created by introducing unique factors into various types of cells, such as blood, skin, and hair cells, and culturing them.

2. The ability to change into cells of various tissues and organs A major characteristic of iPS cells is that they have pluripotency. Pluripotency means that iPS cells can develop nerves, muscles, etc. In addition, it means that they can become various types of cells..

3. The ability to multiply almost indefinitely. Since iPS cells can increase their cells by cell division, the required amount ofYou can get.

Because of these characteristics, we can produce iPS cells from our cells and utilize them for regenerative medicine therapies and drug discovery. For example, we can convert a patient's skin cells into iPS cells and then differentiate them into heart or nerve cells to use them in treatment for heart disease or neurological disorders. In addition, iPS cells have no risk of immune reaction, which allows patients to receive regenerative therapies with no chance of transplant rejection.

Furthermore, research on iPS cells has contributed to drug discovery and disease model development, expediting the discovery of new treatments and effective medicines. In addition, these discoveries accelerate the growth of treatments for intractable diseases and ageing-related disorders. Therefore, iPS cells are expected to help numerous patients down the road to have a better quality of life (QOL).

What can be solved using iPS cells?

Using iPS cells, transplants can be performed for various diseases that previously required transplants from donors without fearing rejection. There is no need to worry about the physical burden on the donor. In addition, although a specific time is required for iPS cells to grow, the annual adaptation and order in conventional transplantation. It is believed that it will no longer be necessary to wait. Furthermore, by creating iPS cells from the cells of a patient with a specific condition, we can reproduce that condition, and the resulting cells can then be used to create iPS cells. This allows us to study them as a model. This will allow us to investigate further the causes of intractable diseases for which few cases exist. It also facilitates finding effective existing drugs or producing new drugs.

Issues related to the utilization of iPS cells

However, there are some things that could be improved with the utilization of iPS cells. First, it is necessary to analyze the genetic information and check for abnormalities. However, the practical application of the treatment has been delayed due to the high hurdles in safety checks and the cost of tens of millions of yen. Therefore, promoting standards that efficiently and promptly confirm safety is necessary. While data must be carefully accumulated for full-scale dissemination in the future, it is also essential to establish a technology for the stable production of high-quality cells and to improve manufacturing facilities, which will require significant investments and human resources.