Description
The pig is important for agriculture and as an animal model in human and veterinary medicine, yet, despite over 20 years of effort, it has proved a difficult species from which to generate pluripotent stem cells analogous to those derived from mouse embryos. Here we report the production of LIF-dependent, so called nave type, pluripotent stem cells from the inner cell mass of porcine blastocysts by up-regulating expression of KLF4 and POU5F1. These cells resemble mouse ES cells and are distinct from the FGF2-dependent, induced pluripotent cell type derived from porcine somatic cells.