Stem cell research and regenerative medicine in 2014: first year of regenerative medicine in Japan

Realistic Dilemma and Solution of Stem Cell Application Supervision in China

The regulatory system for the use of stem cells in China has experienced three stages of development. The internal reason for the constant changes is a lack of understanding of the legal nature of stem cells as a special object, and the external reason is the failure to reach a balance between encouraging and restricting the use of stem cells. With the introduction of China's first special regulations on stem cells in 2015, a dual-track application system for stem cell drugs and therapies has begun to take shape, but there still exists several problems such as gaps in the provisions of the upper law and unclear division of supervisory responsibilities. With respect to the regulatory system, a dual-track system with drug regulation as the mainstay and medical therapy as the supplement should be clarified. In terms of supervision design, stem cell medical therapy should be managed hierarchically according to the degree of risk, and a model should be formed in which the Ministry of Science and Technology conducts general supervision of the entire process, and the Health Commission and the Drug Administration conduct special supervision of clinical applications.

Compassionate use and hospital exemption for regenerative medicine: Something wrong to apply the program for patients in a real world

"Compassionate use" or "Hospital exemption" provides an important pathway for patients with life-threatening conditions to gain access to unproved human cells and tissue products. In a real world, any practitioners may not comply with relevant system. Such regulation should establish an international registry of clinical practices of stem cell therapy as well as provide education for patients to prevent deception by the spread of misinformation by testimonials on websites.

Effects of genetic correction on the differentiation of hair cell-like cells from iPSCs with MYO15A mutation

Deafness or hearing loss is a major issue in human health. Inner ear hair cells are the main sensory receptors responsible for hearing. Defects in hair cells are one of the major causes of deafness. A combination of induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology with genome-editing technology may provide an attractive cell-based strategy to regenerate hair cells and treat hereditary deafness in humans. Here, we report the generation of iPSCs from members of a Chinese family carrying MYO15A c.4642G>A and c.8374G>A mutations and the induction of hair cell-like cells from those iPSCs. The compound heterozygous MYO15A mutations resulted in abnormal morphology and dysfunction of the derived hair cell-like cells. We used a CRISPR/Cas9 approach to genetically correct the MYO15A mutation in the iPSCs and rescued the morphology and function of the derived hair cell-like cells. Our data demonstrate the feasibility of generating inner ear hair cells from human iPSCs and the functional rescue of gene mutation-based deafness by using genetic correction.