Stem cell Noah’s Ark

Artificial transcription factor reprograms cells of human and different animal species with high efficiency. Model of the Super-Sox ( blue )/Oct4 ( yellow ) dimer on a regulatory area of the Oct4 gene in the DNA (grey). MPI f. Molecular Biomedicine - After the discovery of the reprogramming of somatic cells using transcription factors in 2006, induced pluripotent stem cell lines have so far been produced for only a few animal species. Moreover, the generated cells vary greatly in quality. This results in variable developmental potentials, limiting their use in regenerative therapies. An international team of scientists led by Hans Schöler and Sergiy Velychko from the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine in Münster, Germany, has constructed a reprogramming factor - super-Sox - with an increased ability to cooperate with another factor - Oct4, which dramatically enhanced the reprogramming process. Using super-Sox, the researchers have produced high-quality induced pluripotent stem cells from human and other species, such as mouse, crab-eating monkey, cattle, and pig, with high efficiency.