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Expandable progenitors from induced pluripotent stem cells

Nature Reviews Cardiology volume 13, page 574 (2016)Cite this article

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We read with interest the Review by Wu et al. (Induced pluripotent stem cells: at the heart of cardiovascular precision medicine. Nat. Rev. Cardiol. 13, 333–349; 2016)1, which provided an insight into precision medicine aimed at successful drug screening and cardiovascular disease modelling. Regarding the differentiation process, we raise two limitations: heterogeneity, and the time-consuming and costly process. Variations exist not only among established clones of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs)2, but also among hiPSC-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs)3 as final products, suggesting large lot-to-lot variations during differentiation. Given the long duration of the differentiation process, the cytokines required during this process are costly.

Here, we propose that expandable progenitors could be meaningful for resolving these issues (Tables 1,2). When expandable progenitors are established, these cell lines will be self-renewable and suitable for cryopreservation. Furthermore, differentiation from these cell lines (not from iPSCs) will be possible, indicating that time and cost can be reduced, and less heterogeneous products can be obtained.

Table 1 Expandable progenitors without immortalization
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Table 2 Expandable progenitors with immortalization
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Acknowledgements

S.Masuda is supported by the Astellas Foundation for Research on Metabolic Disorders, Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 15K10211), Hyogo Science and Technology Association, Kobayashi Foundation for Cancer Research, Mochida Memorial Foundation for Medical and Pharmaceutical Research, and Takeda Science Foundation.

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  1. Atsuhiro Saito and Yoshiki Sawa are at the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Shigeo Masuda, Shigeru Miyagawa, Satsuki Fukushima, Terumi Nakamura, Maaz Asher Khurram, Tsuyoshi Ishikawa, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, 2–2 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka 565–0871, Japan.,

    Shigeo Masuda, Shigeru Miyagawa, Satsuki Fukushima, Terumi Nakamura, Maaz Asher Khurram, Tsuyoshi Ishikawa, Atsuhiro Saito & Yoshiki Sawa

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  1. Shigeo Masuda
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  2. Shigeru Miyagawa
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  3. Satsuki Fukushima
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Correspondence to Shigeo Masuda or Yoshiki Sawa.

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Masuda, S., Miyagawa, S., Fukushima, S. et al. Expandable progenitors from induced pluripotent stem cells. Nat Rev Cardiol 13, 574 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrcardio.2016.129

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