Mutations Found in Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

In this article  induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) need to go under further research before becoming used clinically. "A national team of researchers examined 22 different hiPSC lines obtained from seven research groups that employed different methods to reprogram skin cells into pluripotent stem cells. In all of these cell lines, the researchers found protein-coding point mutations, an estimated six mutations per exome. The exome is the part of the genome that contains the genetic instructions for making proteins and other gene products." They found that some mutations seem to be silent and others chaged a specific function in the protein. Even though these stem cells are new and exciting to bring into a clinic to use, researchers are still testing them to make sure they are safe to use. An assay was used to find any mutations in the strating cells of a cell line at a low frequency. They found that about half of the mutations were found in the stem cell lines. Some starting cells had rare mutations that could not be detected which could indicate that this happened after the reprogramming. Also,they found that  there were genetic damages that can occur, such as nucleotides or base pairs that can alter the protein when it under goes reprogramming.