Abstract
This editorial refers to ‘Functional vascular smooth muscle cells derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells via mesenchymal stem cell intermediates’ by V.K. Bajpai et al. , pp. 391–400, this issue. The transplantation of autologous stem cells is the gold standard for regenerative therapy, which includes both local transplantation of the cells to injured organs and the engineering of organs. The use of smooth muscle cells (SMCs) has been shown to improve cardiac, vascular, and respiratory function. SMCs in the vasculature mimic natural healing mechanisms.1 The important cells for vascular regenerative medicine are mesenchymal stromal cells.2 The sources of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are well defined and include bone marrow, fat, amniotic fluid, umbilical cord, muscle-derived stem cells, and hair follicle-derived MSCs.3,4 The major problem with regenerative therapy remains the source of the cells. MSCs have limited proliferative potential that decreases with increasing donor age. Thus, finding new types of cells remains an important problem. Human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are an interesting alternative to MSCs and embryonic stem cells. The iPSCs described in 2006 were of interest because they were collected from adult somatic cells and transformed into stem cells by the ectopic expression of factors, including Oct3/4, Sox2, and c-Myc. The cells have great differentiation potential, similar to embryonic stem cells, as shown by a number of rigorous tests. …
Published Version
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