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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2014 Mar 27.
Published in final edited form as: Nat Med. 2013 Aug 6;19(8):998–1004. doi: 10.1038/nm.3267

Figure 2. Potential mechanisms for tumorigenicity during induction of pluripotency in somatic cells.

Figure 2

This figure illustrates the common mechanisms by which the process of reprogramming somatic cells to pluripotency may directly result in promotion of tumorigenic outcomes. Specifically, global epigenetic hypomethylation (purple circles) may directly cause chromosomal abnormalities and oncogene activation. Integration of pluripotency transgenes such as MYC (blue) may result in reactivation of oncogenic networks following cell differentiation and transplantation into patients. Genomic integration of transgenes may also directly inactivate tumor suppressors (white) or activate oncogenes (orange), causing abnormal cell growth.