Nuclear reprogramming by nuclear transplantation and defined transcription factors

In the past ten years, great breakthroughs have been achieved in the nuclear reprogramming area. It has been demonstrated that highly differentiated somatic cell genome could be reprogrammed to a pluripotent state, which indicates that differentiated cell fate is not irreversible. Nuclear transplantation and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell generation are the two major approaches to inducing reprogramming of differentiated somatic cell genome. In the present review, we will summarize the recent progress of nuclear reprogramming and further discuss the potential to generate patient specific pluripotent stem cells from differentiated somatic cells for therapeutic purpose. Supported by the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2005AA210930)