Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells as a Tool for Modeling Hematologic Disorders and as a Potential Source for Cell-Based Therapies.

The breakthrough in human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) has revolutionized the field of biomedical and pharmaceutical research and opened up vast opportunities for drug discovery and regenerative medicine, especially when combined with gene-editing technology. Numerous healthy and patient-derived hiPSCs for human disease modeling have been established, enabling mechanistic studies of pathogenesis, platforms for preclinical drug screening, and the development of novel therapeutic targets/approaches. Additionally, hiPSCs hold great promise for cell-based therapy, serving as an attractive cell source for generating stem/progenitor cells or functional differentiated cells for degenerative diseases, due to their unlimited proliferative capacity, pluripotency, and ethical acceptability. In this review, we provide an overview of hiPSCs and their utility in the study of hematologic disorders through hematopoietic differentiation. We highlight recent hereditary and acquired genetic hematologic disease modeling with patient-specific iPSCs, and discuss their applications as instrumental drug screening tools. The clinical applications of hiPSCs in cell-based therapy, including the next-generation cancer immunotherapy, are provided. Lastly, we discuss the current challenges that need to be addressed to fulfill the validity of hiPSC-based disease modeling and future perspectives of hiPSCs in the field of hematology.

Type I pro-collagen promoting and anti-collagenase activities of Phyllanthus emblica extract in mouse fibroblasts.

As part of an ongoing search for the novel pharmacological activities of Phyllanthus emblica, the present study has shown its type I collagen promoting and anti-collagenase effects on primary mouse fibroblast cells. At a concentration of 0.1 mg/ml, emblica extract significantly increased the type I pro-collagen level up to 1.65-fold, and 6.78-fold greater than that of an untreated control, determined by immunocytochemistry and Western blot analysis, respectively. Emblica extract caused an approximately 7.75-fold greater type I pro-collagen induction compared to the known herbal collagen enhancer asiaticoside at the same treatment concentration (0.1 mg/ml). Moreover, emblica extract inhibited collagenase activity in a dose-dependent manner. Maximal inhibition was observed (78.67 +/- 3.51%) at a concentration of 1 mg/ml. In summary, emblica extract has a promising pharmacological effect that benefits collagen synthesis and protects against its degradation and could be used as a natural anti-aging ingredient.