Current status and perspective on regenerative medicine for spinal cord injury using iPS cell

Stimulated by the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine awarded for Shinya Yamanaka and Sir John Gurdon, there is an increasing interest in the iPS cells and reprogramming technologies in medical science. While iPS cells are expected to open new era providing enormous opportunities in the biomedical sciences in terms of cell therapies for regenerative medicine, safety-related concerns for iPS cell-based cell therapy should be resolved prior to the clinical application of iPS cells. In this symposium, the pre-clinical investigations of cell therapy for SCI using neural stem/progenitor cells derived from iPS cells, and their safety issues in vivo are outlined.