Induced pluripotent stem cell derived from ovarian tissue

The generation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) affords us the unique opportunity in regenerative medicine for autologous cell-based therapies to alleviate major concerns, including the derivation of stem cells as well as allogenicity when considering transplant therapy. iPSCs may be derived from a variety of terminally differentiated somatic tissues. Each lineage of iPSCs appears to retain an epigenetic memory for the tissue of origin. In this chapter, we (i) characterize the derivation of iPSCs from ovarian follicular granulosa cells (GC), (ii) describe the directed differentiation of mouse and human GC-derived iPSCs into ovarian cell types, and (iii) discuss the potential advantages of homotypic differentiation of iPSCs. The directed differentiation of pluripotent stem cells remains challenging since a plethora of molecular cues work in concert in a sequential fashion to facilitate organogenesis. The majority of these cues remain unknown and as such, the epigenetic memory that might drive iPSCs toward regenerating cell types from the tissue of origin provides a platform for facilitating directed differentiation. This differentiation of iPSCs into the cell types of origin, or homotypic differentiation, is detailed in this chapter for ovarian cell types.