The technique comes as an alternative to Dr. Shinya Yamanaka's reprograming methods, which won him the Nobel prize in 2012. Dr. Yamanaka's approach involved reprogramming somatic cells in vitro by introducing four genes through the use of a virus. While promising, the use of this method has been limited. As Dr. Kostarelos's article states, "One of the central dogmas of this emerging field is that in vivo implantation of [these stem] cells will lead to their uncontrolled differentiation and the formation of a tumor-like mass."
Dr. Kostarelos and his team have determined that their technique does not share the risk of uncontrolled stem cell growth into tumors as seen in in vitro, viral-based methods. "[This is the] only experimental technique to report the in vivo reprogramming of adult somatic cells to pluripotency using non-viral, transient, rapid and safe methods," Kostarelos said.
This is the JoVE video article, "In vivo Reprogramming of Adult Somatic Cells to Pluripotency by Overexpression of Yamanaka Factors."
(Photo Credit: JoVE, the Journal of Visualized Experiments)
The Nanomedicine Lab's approach involves injecting large volumes of plasmid DNA to reprogram cells. However, because plasmid DNA is short-lived in this scenario, the risk of uncontrolled growth is reduced.
The research group chose to publish their technique with JoVE as a means to emphasize the novelty, uniqueness and simplicity of their procedure. Along with their article, a demonstration of their technique has been published as a peer-reviewed video to ensure the proper replication of this technique by other researchers in the field.
In the right column, four images confirm the successful in vivo reprogramming of somatic liver cells (blue) into stem cells (pink), versus a control (left column).
(Photo Credit: JoVE, the Journal of Visualized Experiments)
Dr. Açelya Yilmazer of the Nanomedicine Lab at the University of Manchester analyzes liver tissue to asses the effect of in vivo cell reprogramming on liver functionality and histopathology.
(Photo Credit: JoVE, the Journal of Visualized Experiments)