BACKGROUND: Recent studies have found that p53 and its' associated cell cycle 
pathways are major inhibitors of human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell 
generation. In the same family as p53 is p73, which shares sequence similarities 
with p53. However, p73 also has distinct properties of its own, such as two 
alternative promoters to express transactivation of p73 (TAp73) and N terminal 
deleted p73 (DNp73). Functionally, TAp73 acts similarly to p53 in tumor 
suppression. However, DNp73, on the other hand acts as an oncogene to suppress 
p53 and p73 induced apoptosis. Therefore, how can p73 have opposing roles in 
human iPS cell generation?
RESULTS: Transcription factors, Oct4, Sox2, Klf4 and cMyc (4TF, Yamanaka 
factors) are used as basal conditions to generate iPS cells. In addition, the 
factor of DNp73(actually alpha splicing DNp73, DNp73α) is used to generate iPS 
cells. The experiment found that the addition of DNp73 gene increases human iPS 
cell generation efficiency by 12.6 folds in comparison to human fibroblast cells 
transduced with only the basal conditions. Also, iPS cells generated with DNp73 
expression are more resistant to in vitro and in vivo differentiation.
CONCLUSIONS: This study found DNp73, a family member of p53, is also involved in 
the human iPS cell generation. Specifically, that the involvement of DNp73 
generates iPS cells that are more resistant to in vitro and in vivo 
differentiation. Therefore, this data may prove to be useful in future 
developmental studies and cancer researches.