The Applications of the Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells in Studying the Neurodegenerative Diseases

Abstract: It is the prominent breakthrough in stem cell research to generate the induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) through the somatic cell reprogramming of the stem cell transcription factors OCT4， SOX2， c-MYC and KLF4. In recent years， continuous progress has been made in the iPS cell research. Since the iPS cells are generated from the somatic fibroblasts or blood cells， they avoid the concerns on the ethics and immune rejections and open the windows for their clinical applications to study the mechanisms， drug screening and selftransplantation therapy of the human diseases. Here we summarized the recent advances in the methods of iPS cells， the mechanisms of reprogramming by transcription factors and the applications of the iPS cells in research on some neurodegenerative diseases and neurodevelopmental diseases. We also discussed the recent advance in using the iPS cells models from patients with Parkinson’s disease， Alzheimer’s disease， amyotrophic lateral sclerosis， Huntington’s disease and spinal muscular atrophy to explore the molecular mechanism of the mutations in the genes for these diseases.

CSTR: 32200.14.cjcb.2012.05.0001