Generation of pluripotent stem cells

Pluripotent stem cells, which are capable to generate any cell type of the human body, such as human embryonic stem cells (hESC) or human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPS) are a very promising source of cells for regenerative medicine. However, the genesis, the in vitro amplification and the differentiation of these cells still need improvement before clinical use. This study aimed to improve our knowledge on these critical steps in pluripotent stem cell generation. We derived new hESC lines, generated hiPS and compared these cell types with human foreskin fibroblasts and partially reprogrammed fibroblasts. We included in the overall study hESC, hiPS, human foreskin fibroblasts and partially reprogrammed fibroblasts. Here, hESC lines derived from embryos were hybridized on U133 Plus 2.0 GeneChips (Affymetrix). All samples were normalized using the MAS5 (GCOS 1.2) algorithm, using the default analysis settings and global scaling as normalization method, with a trimmed mean target intensity value (TGT) of each array arbitrarily set to 100. Human pluripotent stem cells were compared with somatic samples and partially reprogrammed cells.