The discovery of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) opened the possibilities for reprogramming cells back to a pluripotent state. Because of no apparent ethical issues connected with donation and derivation of biomaterial, iPSCs are considered as a research alternative to ethically highly disputed human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). However, the unique character of iPSCs leads to numerous ethical considerations, which mainly concern the issue of donor information and consent for the use of biospecimen in research and drug evaluation. For the purpose of this analysis, we conducted a review of the literature in the PubMed/MEDLINE and Web of Science databases. The search algorithm led to the identification of 1461 results. After removing duplicates and screening of title and abstract, 90 articles were found to be relevant to the study’s objective. Full texts of these articles were apprised and 62 articles were excluded at this step for not properly addressing the study’s objective. In the final step, 28 articles were included in the analysis. Analyzed were both research and non-research manuscripts published in peer-reviewed journals. In the case of iPSC research, the information process should be guided by general frameworks established for research on human subjects but also by specific characteristics of iPSCs. We determined four main domains and 12 thematic subdomains that should be included in donor information. Our results show that majority of authors agree to the content of information with regard to the areas of general information, storage of cells, and protection of privacy. Two main issues that are discussed in the literature are donor’s consent for use in future studies and the process of donor information. Given the unique character of iPSCs and the possibility of their various uses in the future, the content of donor information should contain specific information central to iPSC research. Effective methods of communicating information to donors should combine written and oral information with the possible use of multimedia.

中文翻译：

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供体信息在研究和诱导多能干细胞（iPSC）的药物评估中。

诱导多能干细胞（iPSC）的发现为将细胞重新编程为多能状态打开了可能性。由于没有明显的与生物材料的捐赠和派生有关的伦理问题，因此，iPSC被认为是在伦理上备受争议的人类胚胎干细胞（hESC）的研究替代品。但是，iPSC的独特性导致了许多伦理学考量，这些考量主要涉及捐赠者信息和在研究和药物评估中使用生物样本的同意。为了进行此分析，我们对PubMed / MEDLINE和Web of Science数据库中的文献进行了回顾。搜索算法导致识别1461个结果。删除重复项并筛选标题和摘要后，发现有90篇文章与该研究的目标有关。由于未正确解决研究目标，因此在此步骤中提供了这些文章的全文，并排除了62篇文章。最后一步，分析中包含28篇文章。分析了在同行评审期刊上发表的研究和非研究手稿。就iPSC研究而言，信息过程应以为人类研究建立的一般框架为指导，也应以iPSC的特定特征为指导。我们确定了捐助者信息中应包括的四个主要领域和12个主题子领域。我们的结果表明，在一般信息，单元格存储和隐私保护方面，大多数作者同意信息的内容。文献中讨论的两个主要问题是捐赠者对将来研究的同意以及捐赠者信息的处理。考虑到iPSC的独特性以及将来有多种用途，捐助者信息的内容应包含iPSC研究的核心特定信息。与捐助者交流信息的有效方法应将书面和口头信息与多媒体的使用结合起来。