A Comparative View on Human Somatic Cell Sources for iPSC Generation

Table 1

Comparison of different starting cell types.

Starting cell type	Hair	Blood			Skin	Urine
Source	Hair follicle	Peripheral blood	Cord blood	Finger pin prick	Skin biopsy/foreskin	Urine
Cell type	Keratinocytes	Mature T-cells; Myeloid cells	Endothelial cells	Capillary blood cells	Fibroblast	Renal tubular cells/epithelial cells
Germ layer	Ectoderm	Mesoderm	Mesoderm	Mesoderm	Mesoderm	Mesoderm
Cultivation	+	+	+	+	++	+
Isolation	++	+	+	+	−	++
Reprogramming efficiency	++	−	+	+	+	++
Invasiveness	No	Yes	(Yes)	(Yes)	Yes	No
Availability	++	+	−	++	+	++
Clinical education needed	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No
Selectivity under culture conditions	++	+	+	+	−	−
Reprogramming time	2-3 weeks	3–5 weeks	2–4 weeks	2-3 weeks	3–5 weeks	3 weeks
Culture costs	+	−	−	+	++	+
Integration free methods tested	+	+	+	+	+	+
Direct transport of primary material	+	−	−	+	−	?

Note: ++: very high convenience; +: high convenience; −: low convenience.