Chapters authored
Nontargeted Metabolite Profiling of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSCs) Derived Neural Cells: Insights Into Mechanisms of Brain Diseases
Since the discovery that introduction of four specific genes encoding transcription factors convert mature human somatic cells into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), there has been an enormous increase in the applications of iPSC technologies to medical sciences, especially in modeling human diseases. In this review, we summarize recent advances in applying human iPSC reprogramming to generate patient-specific neural subtypes in order to reveal molecular pathways affected in various neurodegenerative diseases. Metabolites provide a functional readout of various cellular states enabling identification of biomarker candidates for early diagnosis, segregation of patient cohorts, and to follow-up disease progression or disease responses to novel therapies. With emerging technologies, that is, mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance applications to metabolomics and various software solutions of bioinformatics, it has become possible to measure thousands of metabolites simultaneously. These fascinating new techniques provide a powerful tool for setting scientific hypotheses and linking cellular pathways to biological mechanism. This review focuses on mass spectrometry-based metabolomics as a tool for iPSC research.
Part of the book: Pluripotent Stem Cells