Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells on Feeders

In 2006, it was reported that pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) could be generated by reprogramming mouse fibroblasts to a pluripotent state using four transcription factors delivered via a retroviral infection system. These cells were shown to be embryonic stem cell like with respect to their functional, genotypic and phenotypic properties and were named induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). In 2007, human iPSCs (hiPSCs) were generated. Since then, many different delivery systems have been used to generate cell lines from a broad array of somatic cell types with widely varying efficiency.