Nihon Rinsho. 2016 Sep;74(9):1560-1564.

iPSCs and aging.

[Article in Japanese]

Sakuma I, Tanaka T.

Abstract

In addition to the discovery that mature cells can be reprogrammed to become pluripotent stem cells(iPS cells), the technical innovations of big-data analyses as well as the cutting- edge technologies such as nuclear reprogramming technique and genome-editing system are emerging a big paradigm shift in the field of regenerative medicine and aging. This is bonafide a kind of the molecular biological movement of the Renaissance to answer the question of 120 years ago "D'ofi Venons Nous Que Sommes Nous Oi Allons Nous", a testament of Paul Gauguin. These technologies enable us, particularly inexhaustible researchers with challenging spirits, not only to dynamically, qualitatively and visually systematically understand underling mechanisms of single gene, single molecule, single cell and their complicated networks in vivo with broadly combining them from cells to organs and individuals', but also to pursue the mechanistic insight into "Life, Aging, Disease, and Death" and thereby con- trol them. We herein review about recent hot topic findings focused on regenerative medicine, cellular senescence & aging as well as aging-related disease, and then discuss the functional interconnection between reprogramming process and senescence signal.