Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) are one of the new options for the treatment of diseases and injuries such as macular degeneration, Parkinson’s disease, heart failure, spine and cartilage injuries, acute graft versus host disease and some others. Their safety and efficacy are already being tested in clinical trials. The use of iPSC in regenerative medicine has many advantages such as avoiding the ethical dilemmas that appear with the use of embryonic stem cells (ESC) and the option of autologous therapies which avoid immune rejections. In recent years we can notice more clinical trials that utilise iPSC in comparison to ESC. The results of some of the clinical trials are encouraging, but still there are some unwanted properties of iPSC that we must avoid, such as tumorigenicity, immunogenicity, heterogeneity and the ability of different cells to differentiate to different cell types. The production of iPSC for cellular therapies is dependent on correct laboratory procedures and the analysis of the biological state of iPSC at each step. Besides cellular therapies, iPSC hold a great potential for disease modelling and testing the safety and efficacy of novel drugs.
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