Induction of pluripotent stem cells from mouse embryonic fibroblast cultures by three defined factors

Background: The study of embryonic stem cells is always confined to ethical disputation or lack of ootid. Scholars are trying to seek a method to obtain multi-potential stem cells which would not destroy the embryo or egg cells. Objective: To construct and identify the induced pluripotent stem cells from mouse embryonic fibroblasts by three defined factors. Methods: Three stem cell genes (Oct4, Sox2 and Klf4) were introduced into the embryonic fibroblasts of BALB/C mouse by retroviral infection. The induced pluripotent stem cells constructed by this method were analyzed in many aspects, including surface antigens, gene expression, alkaline phosphatase activity and teratoma formation assays. Results and Conclusion: The induced pluripotent stem cells generated from this study had an embryonic stem cell-like shape, were positive for alkaline phosphatase staining, expressed embryonic stem cell-specific surface antigens, and possessed the ability to differentiate into 3-germ layers both in vivo and in vitro. So the induced pluripotent stem cells can be obtained from mouse embryonic fibroblasts by introducing three factors, which are similar to embryonic stem cells in many ways.