Canine induced pluripotent stem cells: an in vitro approach to validate the dog as a large animal model for Alzheimer’s disease

Canine cognitive dysfunction (CCD) is a potential natural model for human Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In this chapter we are addressing the current procedures of how to obtain canine induced pluripotent stem cells (ciPSCs) from geriatric dogs and the available protocols for differentiation of ciPSC into neurons. Moreover, we present how these neurons derived from ciPSC can be compared to human iPSC (hiPSC)-derived neurons in order to validate dogs with CCD as natural models for AD. This practical example presents the importance to generate species-specific iPSC to broaden our knowledge of cell type–specific disease models and to investigate, compare, and evaluate the different animal models as appropriate disease models for human diseases.