Single cell analysis reveals the stochastic phase of reprogramming to pluripotency is an ordered probabilistic process.

ABSTRACT: Despite years of research, the reprogramming of human somatic cells to pluripotency remains a slow, inefficient process, and a detailed mechanistic understanding of reprogramming remains elusive. Current models suggest reprogramming to pluripotency occurs in two-phases: a prolonged stochastic phase followed by a rapid deterministic phase. In this paradigm, the early stochastic phase is marked by the random and gradual expression of pluripotency genes and is thought to be a major rate-limiting step in the successful generation of induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSCs). Recent evidence suggests that the epigenetic landscape of the somatic cell is gradually reset during a period known as the stochastic phase, but it is known neither how this occurs nor what rate-limiting steps control progres

SUBMITTER: Chung KM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3990627 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature