What are Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSCs)?
Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells, or iPSC, are created by taking ordinary skin or blood cells and reprogramming them into an embryonic-like pluripotent state. In this state, the cells can mimic stem cells, which allows them to become any cell needed for therapeutic purposes, such as islet cells to treat diabetes or the personalization of the cells, and even create transplantable human organs in combination with 3D printing technology. In the future, induced pluripotent stem cells may create unlimited possibilities in regenerative medicine and biotechnology.
iPSC Generation Methods
The induced Pluripotent Stem Cell (iPSC) line is created from the patient’s skin fibroblasts using mRNAs in a non-integrative, non-viral reprogramming technique. The original method for deriving iPSCs from mature cells (e.g., fibroblasts) described by Professor Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University remains the basis for iPSC reprogramming today. Recently the field has moved on to non-integrating reprogramming approaches that do not induce genetic changes in reprogrammed cells. This can vastly reduce the risk of unintended genetic changes and eliminate problems associated with residual viral DNA remaining in the target cell. The cutting edge of these non-integrating approaches that have emerged in the last few years is to utilize synthetic, highly modified mRNAs. These mRNAs only have a transient existence in the patient’s skin fibroblasts and allow reprogramming without editing the genome or introducing any lasting foreign genetic material. mRNAs will be used by the cell’s own protein construction machinery to synthesize the transcription factor proteins that govern the reprogramming process. After four doses of a cocktail of mRNAs, once this reprogramming process is underway, the mRNAs will deteriorate entirely, meaning the patient’s iPSCs have been produced in a ‘scarless’ way, leaving no genetic trace of the procedure. This approach creates the ideal starting resource for clinical application in regenerative medicine.
When cells are reprogrammed into iPSCs, they adopt a ‘rejuvenated’ state, erasing the ‘epigenetic’ signatures of aging and essentially resembling a fetal cell. These cells are called‘ pluripotent’ because of their ability to form all cell types of adult humans. Because iPSCs have been ‘rejuvenated’ by the reprogramming process, and given their capacity for almost indefinite self-renewal and proliferation, they can be used as an almost limitless source of biologically young therapeutic cells, including Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs), which are the forefront of clinical stem cell therapy today.
At Lovinium Group, all iPSC lines are characterized and banked according to the international guidelines outlined by the International Society of Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) – “Guidelines for Stem Cell Research and Clinical Translation,” 2016. And to the iPSC banking guidelines outlined by Stephen Sullivan et al., as part of the Global Alliance for iPSC Therapies (GAiT) “Quality control guidelines for clinical-grade human induced pluripotent stem cell lines,” 2018.
iPSC banking
Lovinium Group’s goal is to build the world’s largest stem cell bank; we collect IPSCs from guests worldwide and preserve them for future use.
Would you be happy knowing that you could heal yourself of any disease because of our iPSC banking?
iPSC banking is a new way to store your health for the future. Stem cells are what your body uses to heal each day. When you bank iPSC, you have the key to a better quality of life no matter what health conditions you may face in the future. You deserve to live a long, healthy life! And now you can, with iPSC banking. It’s your key to eliminating pain and disease in the future. Stem cells are unspecialized cells that have the potential to multiply and grow into many different types of cells throughout the body, from bone to muscle to neuron and beyond. Imagine how easy it would be to eliminate arthritis pain or grow new skin on an old wound with your own healthy and young cells.
Imagine if you could keep that level of health going forever! Lovinium iPSC banking means you can. Create the future. Create your health.
The iPS cells are stored at Lovinium biobank in Spain, where they are kept in a cryogenic facility that is constantly monitored for compliance by the FDA and has been approved by them. The temperature of the tanks is also monitored continuously electronically, with readings taken every hour. Two backup alarm systems are in place to ensure that we will be notified immediately if anything goes wrong. If the temperature increases even slightly, an alarm sounds, and our staff is alerted through an automatic calling system. An extensive backup battery and then a backup generator connected to this ensure that we are never without power.
At Lovinium biobank, once your iPS cells have been processed, we store the stem cells in tanks holding liquid nitrogen at optimal long-term storage temperatures -190ºC or colder. We use liquid nitrogen due to its ability to remain at a consistent temperature throughout the tank and to protect frozen cells from any infections or bacteria. This allows us to keep your stem cells long-term without degrading their viability or function.
How to use iPSCs
Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Differentiation
The induction of pluripotency in somatic cells is one of the most important breakthroughs in stem cell research. This process involves reprogramming adult (somatic) cells into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). These differentiated adult cells can be used to derive any cell type in the body, including:
-Ectodermal
Neuron, Astrocyte, Oligodendrocyte, Retinal Epithelial Cell (RPE), Epidermal, Hair, and Keratinocytes.
-Mesodermal
Hematopoietic, Endothelial Cell, Cardiomyocyte, Smooth Muscle Cell, Skeletal Muscle Cell, Renal cell, Adipocyte, Chondrocyte, and Osteocytes.
-Endodermal
Hepatocyte, Pancreatic β-islet Cell, Intestinal Epithelial Cell, Lung Alveolar Cells.
The iPS cell technology is revolutionizing the development of therapeutic drugs and disease modeling. Compared with primary culture, iPSC-derived cells have several advantages:
(1) they are amenable to genome editing/engineering;
(2) they have direct control over genetic diversity with unlimited proliferation potential;
(3) they can be differentiated into specific cell types which are hard to collect directly from the donors, such as cardiomyocytes, cortical neurons, pancreatic beta cells, etc.
Our iPSC service team comprises industry-leading experts, and we are proud to provide feeder-free, footprint-free iPS cells with a success rate of over 95%.
Disease Modeling： We offer a variety of different disease model cells from IPSC differentiation.
Drug Discovery
IPSC cells can be used as an alternative to primary cells in biology. The induced pluripotent stem cell line has the potential to provide similar cell types in biology. It will be used for compound identification, compound screening, target validation, and as a tool for new drug discovery.
The IPSC cell platform simulates human disease models, and the best possible drugs can be created in the fastest possible time.
Toxicology/Safety Pharm
Toxicology is a new research discipline that uses human cell models to evaluate the effect of drugs and chemicals by applying a comprehensive set of cell-based technologies, including stem cell technology. Toxicology can be used to build a human cell model with specific cells differentiated by IPSCs, and evaluate the safety of the cells of an organ to environmental toxicants or drugs through this model to help pharmaceutical enterprises reduce the high loss rate of developing new drugs.
3D Organs
We are working hard towards manufacturing human organs, such as the kidney, heart, liver, etc. We intend to improve our performance by using our unique 3D printing technology. We expect you to see the actual transplantation of human organs with our help shortly.
We believe that the only way to achieve this goal is through quality control and the constant improvement of our products. We hope that our customers will share their feedback with us so that we can continue to improve our products and services.
Soon, 3D printing will allow surgeons to grow organs in the laboratory, which can be transplanted into patients. This is an incredible opportunity for people waiting on organ transplant lists for years.
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