What methods are available for reprogramming blood cells into iPS cells that don’t include the introduction of foreign genetic material? Are there limitations to these methods?
This question is part of the following Ask The Expert session:
Using Blood Cells As a Source for Generating Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells
Answered by:
Answer
There currently are no robust methods available to generate iPS cells without the introduction of foreign genetic material such as DNA or RNA. That being said, RNA-based vector systems cannot integrate, therefore no exogenous genetic material will be introduced into the genome.
This post is sponsored by STEMCELL Technologies Inc..