The limited experimental access to AD-affected human brain tissue has severely impeded the elucidating of early molecular mechanisms underlying AD development. Generation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) by over-expression of defined transcription factors in somatic cells, particularly in those from patients, presents an attractive and promising approach to model early stages of AD in vitro and to screen novel biomarkers as well as therapeutic medicines [11–14]. To date, several research groups have independently reported that AD patient-specific iPSC-derived neurons and glia recapitulate multiple features of AD pathological events, offering experimental evidence of utilizing patient-specific iPSCs to model AD and reevaluate the current hypothesis of AD pathogenesis [15–22]. Their findings also suggest that iPSCs from large numbers of AD patients are needed for the understanding of AD etiology comprehensively due to the heterogeneity of familial and sporadic AD [23].
