The Current State of Pluripotency Affairs in hiPSCs

The Current State of Pluripotency Affairs in hiPSCs

Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) display the potential for unlimited self-renewal and the capacity to give rise to all somatic cell types. Despite this, the use of human ESCs (hESCs) in research and therapy has been limited due to ethical concerns. Strategies to develop human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) by reprogramming somatic cells have presented an alternative to this situation. Despite an impressive progress in the field of cell reprogramming, concerns are consistently raised about the genomic and epigenomic integrity of hiPSCs. A major question remains: are hiPSCs indeed the true equivalent to hESCs?