Methods for Pluripotent Stem Cell Characterization: A Narrative Review

Abstract

Pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) have revolutionized medical research by offering significant advancements in regenerative medicine, disease modeling, and drug discovery. Several research and clinical studies have successfully generated PSCs but with varying characterization methodologies. Characterization methods are crucial to guarantee the safety and efficacy of PSCs in research and therapeutic applications. Therefore, there is a need for standardization of characterization methods to ensure their quality, reproducibility, and comparability across laboratories. In this review, the authors discuss the mandatory and non-mandatory assessments used for morphological, molecular, genetic, and functional PSC characterization. We will present their advantages and limits with the aim of providing insights for assessment optimization and helping facilitate the standardization of characterization methods.