Generation of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells from Human Amnion Cells

Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells have been generated through nuclear reprogramming of somatic cells via retrovirus- or lentivirus-mediated transduction of exogenous reprogramming factors OCT3/4, SOX2, KLF4 , and c-MYC . The extraembryonic amnion is considered to be a promising candidate cell source for cellular therapeutics and the generation of iPS cells because it contains a large number of cells that do not require any genetic or epigenetic modifications. In this chapter, we describe how to generate human amniotic membrane (hAM) primary cells derived from placenta and how to establish the iPS cells from these hAM cells using four reprogramming factors. The hAM-derived iPS cells could be useful for personal regenerative medicine for future infants and useful as genetic disease models and for disease-specific drug discovery.