In the July issue of Cell Transplantation, Australian scientists P. A. Tat et al. from the Monash institute of Medical Research (Melbourne) reported their experimental results on the transduction/reprogramming efficiencies in either mouse neural stem cells (NSCs), adipose tissue-derived cells (ADCs), or mouse embryonic fibroblasts (mEFs) for generating induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. With a retroviral vector encoding for the DNA sequence of Oct4, Sox2, Klf4, and c-Myc, the investigators transduced NSCs, ADCs, and mEFs and analyzed GFP expression as an indicator of reprogramming (GFP transgene was under the control of the Oct4 promoter). Although the transduction efficiencies were similar for all 3 cell types, the investigators found that reprogramming efficiencies in the number of GFP-positive colonies for both NSCs and ADCs were greater than control mEFs. Additionally, the experimental results revealed that ADCs had an 8- and 38-fold increase in reprogramming efficiencies compared to NSCs and mEFs, respectively. In vitro and in vivo experiments showed that iPS cells from ADCs were found to be pluripotent by their ability to differentiate into cell lineages representing all 3 germ layers. The authors concluded from their study results "that ADCs are an ideal candidate as a readily accessible somatic cell type for high efficiency and establishment of iPS cell lines."