Application potentials of the iPSC technology in modeling, drug discovery and regeneration of skeletal system disorders

A whole range of in vitro and in vivo systems are currently applied to study various physiological aspects of both healthy and diseased skeletal tissues. There are however limitations of using animal models in deciphering or predicting the pathophysiology of skeletal human diseases; the onset and progression are obviously slower in human than in animals, and pathological changes in animal models can hardly be consistent with those of human disease, and certain compounds shown to be therapeutically effective in animal models can turn out to be ineffective in patients. Therefore alternative strategies to study skeletal disorders have been proposed to use stem or progenitor cells. In particular, induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) and the derived cells are emerging as cell sources that could potentially overcome the majority of the limitations mentioned above and are currently employed as tools for dissecting disease mechanisms and for the advanced platforms for drug discovery. iPSC also holds great potential for regenerating damaged tissues/organs and restoring tissue functions impaired by diseases. Therefore this chapter will discuss the emerging potentials of iPSC in modeling skeletal diseases, drug screening/testing, and regenerative medicine.