胚胎干细胞(embryonic stem cells,ESC)在人类遗传病学研究、疾病模型建立、器官再生以及动物物种改良和定向变异等方面的地位是其他类型的细胞不可取代的。但是,由于实验技术和体外培养条件的限制,除了小鼠、恒河猴和人之外,大鼠、猪、牛、羊等其他哺乳动物的ES细胞系被证明很难获得。先后有多个研究小组报道了他们利用新兴的诱导多能干细胞(induced pluripotent stem cells,iPS细胞)技术成功建立大鼠和猪的iPS细胞系的研究成果。迄今为止,这两个物种是在未成功建立ES细胞系之前利用iPS技术建立多能干细胞系的成功范例。这些研究对于那些还未建立ES细胞的物种建立多能干细胞系提供了一种新的方案,也将给这些物种的胚胎干细胞的建立、基因修饰动物的产生以及人类医疗事业的促进和发展带来新的希望。
Embryonic stem (ES) cells have been demonstrated very important in the study of human genetic diseases, disease modeling, organ regeneration, and directed mutation in animals. However, the ES cell lines of rats, pigs, cattle, sheep and other mammals have been proved difficult to obtain. Recently, several research groups reported that rats and pigs pluripotent stem cell lines have been successfully established by using the induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) technique. These studies provide an alternative way to derive the pluripotent stem cells of other species, and also will be valuable for the establishment of embryonic stem cells, production of genetically modified animals, and the development of medical treatment.