Progress in research on methods for inducing reprograme of induced pluripotent stem cells

In 2006, scientists obtained a kind of pluripotency cells, named as induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) by importing four transcription factors (Oct4, Sox2, cMyc and Klf4) into differentiated mouse fibroblast cells. Differentiated cells can be reprogramed to pluripotent stem cells stably with this technology and used for treatment of diseases. In this way, the limitation of application of traditional embryonic stem cells by social factors, such as ethical and moral factors, may be avoided. Therefore, the development of the method promotes the progress in research on theory and clinical application of stem cells enormously. This paper reviews the methods for inducing reprograme of iPS cells developed in recent years.