胚胎幹細胞是來自哺乳動物胚胎期之囊胚的內細胞團，擁有長時間不會分化的能力，同時保持多能性，並且能夠分化成三個胚層的各種細胞。在一定條件下，多能性幹細胞可以在體外無限地繁殖並保持分化成各種體細胞和胚胎外組織的能力。而從人類或動物的成體細胞中轉殖基因Oct3 / 4，SOX2 ，c - Myc，Klf4，Nanog和LIN28於細胞內後，在培養胚胎幹細胞的條件下，也可培養成為誘導多能性幹細胞(iPS cells)，這些細胞展現出似胚胎幹細胞的型態與生長特徵及胚胎幹細胞的標的基因。在我們的研究中，我們利用小鼠受精後的受精卵，成功地在體外培養小鼠胚胎幹細胞。利用免疫螢光染色確定多能性因子Oct3 / 4、SOX2存在於我們所建立的小鼠胚胎幹細胞中。我們使用人類胎兒肺部纖維母細胞、月經血細胞及子宮內膜細胞，以基因殖入的方法將其倒程式化(reprogramming) 後誘導成多能性幹細胞。最後這些細胞也經由免疫螢光染色確定多能性因子Oct3 / 4、SOX2及人類幹細胞專一性抗體SSEA4、TRA-1-60的存在。我們成功地建立了小鼠胚胎幹細胞及人類誘導多能性幹細胞技術，並希望利用這些技術在幹細胞生物、腫瘤醫學及組織工程醫學的研究領域發揮重要貢獻和作用。 Embryonic stem (ES) cells are derived from the inner cell mass of mammalian blastocysts. These cells have not only the ability to maintain pluripotency, but also the ability to differentiate into cells of all three germ layers. Under certain conditions, pluripotential stem cells can be stimulated to propagate indefinitely in vitro and still maintain the capacity for differentiation into a wide variety of somatic and extra embryonic tissues. Recently, induction of pluripotent stem cells have been derived under ES cell culture conditions human or mouse embryonic fibroblasts and adult fibroblasts by introducing factors such as Oct3/4, Sox2, c-Myc, Klf4, Nanog and LIN28 into the culture medium. These cells, which are defined as induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, exhibit the morphological and growth properties of ES cells and express ES cell marker genes. In this study, we established the ES cell techniques to derive mouse ES from fertilized eggs in vitro. We also develop the method of inducing and culturing the "human lung fetal fibroblast, endometrium cell and uterine endometrium cells" to become human iPS cells with the method of infecting four genes into these cells to allow cell reprogramming to pluripotency. To identify these hiPS cells, we performed immunocytochmistry. The pluripotent factors such as Oct3/4, SOX2 and Nanog, and human specific markers TRA-1-60 and SSEA-4, were markedly expressed in each human iPS cells. We prospect that these stem cell techniques will be invaluable for future researches of stem cell biology, cancer medicine and tissue engineering.
