iPSCs
Table of comparison
Method of Generation
Cost
Clinical Applications
Number of papers published on method
Efficiency
Effectiveness
Ethicality
Cytoplasmic RNA delivery
Low
Limited
Moderate
Very high
Low
Ethical
Episomal vectors
Very Low
Moderate
High
Moderate
Moderate
Ethical
Polycistronic minicircle DNA nonviral vectors Plasmid based expression Oocyte reprogramming
Low
Limited
Moderate
High
High
Ethical
Moderate
Moderate
High
Low
Moderate
Ethical
High
Limited
Moderate
High
High
Ethical
Protein delivery
Moderate
Moderate
Low
Low
Moderate
Ethical
This table compares the cost, clinical applications, amount of research done, efficiency, effectiveness, and ethicality of the different methods of iPSC generation. All of these factors are very hard to both measure and to compare as different research groups, companies and universities run their experiments with minor differences in materials, equipment and methods. Additionally, different universities get different results from very similar experiments and can have very different opinions on how to interpret that data. Therefore, I have taken a majority view from all of the information that I could source to determine how the different methods should be ranked. Cost is based on the average amount of money in USD required to make one iPSC using the method. Clinical applications refers to the number of clinical applications and how safe the iPSC is when used for the treatment of patients in a medical setting. Numbers of papers published on the method is based on the number of publicly accessible papers that I could find that have been published using the method to generate iPSCs. Efficiency is the average amount of time taken for one cell to go through the generation process with the method. Effectiveness is the average percentage of cells successfully turned into iPSCs using the method. In terms of ethicality, all methods are considered ethical. This is because all current methods of creating, testing and doing research on stem cells is mostly done in cell cultures/in vitro. This means that no living organism experiences any harm from research. IPSCs can be obtained from somatic cells without destroying embryos, which avoids ethical problems arising from the destruction/death of human embryos used in typical stem cell research. Some have concerns about the sourcing of cells for use in iPSC generation. Oocyte cells from humans are donated. Likewise with other cells used such as skin cells, fibroblasts and PMBCs. Some still have concerns about the altering of human cells on religious grounds stating that it is ‘playing god’ . 48 Many cells used however come from mice. Skin, PMBCs and oocyte cells are often taken from mice for initial testing. Some consider this unethical however there are strict regulations of how the animals must be kept and treated and a majority of
48 Zheng Y. L. (2016). Some Ethical Concerns About Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells. Science and engineering ethics , 22 (5), 1277 – 1284.
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