Pluripotent stem cells – from physiology to cell therapy, disease models and test systems

Abstract

Owing to their ability to reproduce the embryonic, fetal and neonatal differentiation of all different organotypic cellular phenotypes, pluripotent stem cells represent an ideal tool to study physiological processes of embryogenesis under in vitro conditions, as well as provide the basis of cellular therapeutics to develop novel disease models and to build up test assay systems for drug discovery and toxicology. In particular, embryonic stem (ES) cells and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells can reproduce all organotypic electrophysiology, signalling cascades and genes involved in development (functional genomics). This spontaneously occurs within three-dimensional cell aggregates – embryoid bodies – which were developed 25 years ago. To select only one lineage (e.g. the cardiac lineage) and to allow the identification of the transplanted cells, transgenic ES and iPS cells were used. They contained a vector with two cloning sites for enhanced green fluorescent protein and a puromycin resistance gene for selection under the α -MHC (myosin heavy chain) promoter. We aimed to generate iPS cell-derived cardiomyocytes and their molecular and functional characterization in comparison with cardiomyocytes derived from established ES cells on a transcriptomic and electrophysiological level. To demonstrate the ability of ES cells for regenerative medicine and tissue repair, cardiomyocytes differentiated from ES cells were injected into the cryoinfarcted left ventricular wall of adult wild-type mice. Translation from the laboratory into the clinic is one of the remaining key issues for applied stem cell research.