The Development of Cancer through the Transient Overexpression of Reprogramming Factors

Although induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells have significant implications for overcoming most of the ethical issues associated with embryonic stem cells, several issues related to the use of iPS cells in clinical applications remain unresolved, including the issue of teratoma formation. We previously reported that the induction of induced tissue-specific stem (iTS) cells from the pancreas (iTS-P) or liver (iTS-L) by the transient overexpression of reprogramming factors, combined with tissue-specific selection and the generation of iTS cells, could have important implications for the clinical application of stem cells. At the same time, we also generated “induced fibroblast-like (iF) cells” that were capable of self-renewal, which had a similar morphology to fibroblast cells. In this study, we evaluated iF cells. iF cells are unlikely to show adipogenic/osteogenic differentiation. Moreover, iF cells have the ability to form tumors and behave similarly to pancreatic cancer cells. The technology used in the generation of iPS/iTS cells is also associated with the risk of generating cancer-like cells.