Researchers recently showed that adult human and mouse skin cells could be "reprogrammed" to be capable of generating any type of cell in a manner similar to embryonic stem cells, sidestepping many ethical objections to this work. advertisementNow the pioneer of this method, Prof Shinya Yamanaka [photo at right] of Kyoto University, reports today in the journal Science that his team has moved another step closer to understanding how these "induced pluripotent stem cells" or iPS cells might be reprogrammed without causing tumours when they are transplanted into the body, a crucial step if they are used to study disease or developed for human therapies.
Dr Takashi Aoi and his other colleagues reprogrammed adult mouse liver and stomach lining cells into iPS cells by genetically altering the cell by introducing three new genes with a kind of virus, called a retrovirus...
The Japanese work has now been confirmed in other laboratories. A few days ago, UCLA stem cell scientists led by Kathrin Plath and William Lowry used genetic alteration to turn back the clock on human skin cells and create cells that are nearly identical to human embryonic stem cells, iPS cells.
"Our reprogrammed human skin cells were virtually indistinguishable from human embryonic stem cells," says Dr Plath. "We are very excited about the potential implications."
Source: The Telegraph (U.K.), February 20.
