From human somatic stem cells to human iPS cells – State of the art and future needs

Abstract

The term environmental epigenetics refers the alterations in phenotype influenced by environmental exposures with the elucidation of epigenetic mechanisms responsible for altered gene expression. Epigenome of a stem cell is sensitive to environmental exposures. This character would cause phenotypic instability during in vitro expansion of a stem cell and disease susceptibility originated from a somatic stem cell. Although a reprogramming technology is to erase these disease‐inducing epigenetic marks, recent knowledge indicate the incompleteness of the artificial reprogramming and the physiological reprogramming.