iPS Cell Research & Challenges It Faces
Hopes For Practical Use of iPS Cells
What practical applications do iPS cells have in store? iPS cells can grow to become cells that form almost all organs in the body, giving rise to growing hopes that they may lead to new therapies for serious injuries and intractable diseases. In fact, research on application of the technique to treatment of damaged spinal cords has been making good progress. Keio University Professor Hideyuki Okano, who works with Professor Shinya Yamanaka, says iPS cells will be put to practical applications in five years’ time.
Fertilized ovum cells, which are called immature or pluripotent cells, repeat segmentation to develop into all cell types that form the adult organism such as internal organs, nerves, muscles, etc. The latter are called specialized cells. It had been common sense in the medical world that this change from immature to specialized cells is unidirectional, meaning that once they grow up, they will not return to origin. But Professor Yamanaka has proved that mature cells can be “reprogrammed” to become pluripotent stem cells, for which he won the Nobel Prize.
His discovery has given rise to expectations that iPS cells can open the way for the development of new medicine and tissue engineering. When, for example, the heart and the liver become dysfunctional, iPS cells can be grown into cells of such organs. Conventional organ transplant operations sometimes cause problems, in most cases the immunological reaction that leads to rejection of an organ transplanted from another person. However, such concern may be eased with iPS cells that can be derived from a patient’s own somatic cells. Treatment for injured cords is said to have progressed to the extent that it is highly effective when the injury is not older than a month. And researchers say that regeneration of the retina is not a dream.
Now the new Liberal Democratic Party government seems to be getting ready to promote practical applications of the iPS cell technique. Late last year, Yoshitaka Shindo, then head of the LDP’s Economy & Industry Panel (he was later appointed Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications in the Abe Cabinet) said, “While Japan is at the top level in the world in research on regenerative medicine, the reality is that it lags behind other countries in practical applications. A straight application of the rigid provisions in our Pharmaceutical Affairs Act is making the situation very difficult. It is clear we need to make various improvements to expedite research and development and (government) approval of new therapies. Tissue engineering can be Japan’s new growth area. So this panel will work hard to create systems so that its practical use and industrialization can be accelerated.”
Incidentally, this writer saw an anonymous young man put up his serious question at the Yahoo Chiebukuro (pearls of wisdom) site some time ago. “Can iPS cells revive my dead hair roots?” Well, he may probably have some hope.
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