Seven years ago, the creation of iPS (induced pluripotent) cells were initially reported and since then, scientists began to devote to the field attempting to breach the limitations of many diseases.

It is known that four genes, Oct3/4, Sox2, c-Myc and Klf4 can induce the stem-cell-like differentiation. But such induced cells will lead to high rate of carcinogenesis. Thus scientists took much time to find other ways to lower the rate.

In their attempts, Oct4 is found to be necessary whenever they tried to substitute those genes with small-molecule chemical compounds. Before this, they screen ten thousands of small molecules. There are two approaches to substitutes the gene: first, find compounds that directly stand in for Oct4; second, find compounds that could reprogram the cells in the presence of all the usual genes except for Oct4. But they failed in both ways. Thereby they adjusted their thoughts, and began to combine these compounds.

Over one year, they finally found qualified one. By adding DZNep, the effect was even better. With the combination of seven compounds, they can get similar results to those from standard iPS production technique.

After verification, they compounds were pluripotent on mouse models.

The findings show safer ways can be used to induce the pluripotency of cells and shed light on the mechanism of reprogramming.

Source: Creative Biomart is a world leading Biotech Company that provides quality recombinant proteins, diagnostic antibodies and antigens, diagnostic enzymes and pharmaceutical enzymes to the research community of biology, clinical research, molecular diagnostics and biopharmaceutical drug development.