Abstract
Cell replacement therapy is attractive as a novel strategy for neurological diseases such as stroke. To realize this therapy, safer and more therapeutic effective cell resources are now needed. Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells can retain high replication competence and pluripotency when they differentiate into various kinds of cells, then they are regarded as a promising cell resource for cell transplantation therapy. However, high tumorigenesis of iPS has to be overcome for clinical applications. Recently it was reported that novel combination of transcriptional factors can convert somatic cells to various kinds of mature neuronal cells and neural stem cells without requiring iPS cell fate. Some evidence indicated that these directly induced neuronal (iN) cells have little tumorigenic potential. We discuss the advantage, issues, and possibility of clinical application of iN cells for cell replacement therapy.
