Gene Delivery and Expression Systems in Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

Abstract

Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, which can be generated from somatic cells by genetic manipulation, are invaluable experimental and therapeutic tools for development of tissue regeneration technologies. Many studies have demonstrated that gene delivery to pluripotent stem cells is useful for basic studies in developmental biology and for driving differentiation toward a specific cell lineage for regenerative applications. Several gene delivery systems using viral and nonviral vectors have been used for stem cell research. These gene delivery systems are designed to accommodate specific research purposes; thus, each of them possesses its own advantages and disadvantages according to the experimental design. In addition, the type of constitutive promoter in the expression vector greatly affects the transcriptional activity of transgenes in pluripotent stem cells. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the characteristics of the vectors and their promoters when selecting a gene delivery system to transfer the target gene into iPS cells. In this mini-review, characteristics of commonly used viral (adenoviral, adeno-associated viral, retroviral, and lentiviral) vectors and a nonviral piggyBac transposon DNA vector with constitutive promoters are outlined to support the selection of an appropriate gene delivery and expression system for iPS cell research.