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Skin Cells Turned Embryonic

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the awaiting-new-objections dept.

anik315 writes "Nature is reporting a major breakthrough in embryonic stem cell research. A straightforward procedure using mouse fibroblasts harvested from the skin can be used to produce pluripotent stem cells that can potentially become any other cell in the body. Not only can Yamanaka's method use the most basic cells, it can be accomplished with simple lab techniques. Possible applications of this breakthrough are to check molecular changes in cells as certain conditions develop. Stem cells produced using this procedure, however, can not be used safely to make genetically matched cells for transplant."

3 of 261 comments (clear)

  1. Papers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Actual papers for those interested (it was published simultaneously by three groups): (Nature probably requires subscriptions, the first one is free access)

    Nimet Maherali, Rupa Sridharan, Wei Xie, Jochen Utikal, Sarah Eminli, Katrin Arnold, Matthias Stadtfeld, Robin Yachechko, Jason Tchieu, Rudolf Jaenisch, Kathrin Plath, and Konrad Hochedlinger
    http://www.cellstemcell.com/content/article/fullte xt?uid=PIIS1934590907000203

    Keisuke Okita, Tomoko Ichisaka & Shinya Yamanaka
    http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent /full/nature05934.html

    Marius Wernig, Alexander Meissner, Ruth Foreman, Tobias Brambrink, Manching Ku, Konrad Hochedlinger, Bradley E. Bernstein & Rudolf Jaenisch
    http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent /full/nature05944.html

  2. Re:Why didn't they START with human cells? by tyler_larson · · Score: 4, Informative

    Why are they running these experiments on mouse cells? Why aren't they starting with human skin cells and developing their techniques there? It would avoid the secondary step of having to transfer the technique from mouse tissue to human tissue.

    Simplicity. Protocol. Reproducibility.

    Labs that experiment on mice use specific inbred genetic lines that are widely available with limited genetic diversity. This limits the amount of experimental error that can be attributed to the variations in the traits of the animals. It also means that other labs attempting to reproduce the same results will have a greater chance of success because they'll be starting with an organism that genetically is nearly identical to the ones used elsewhere.

    See Model Organism.

    --
    "With sufficient thrust, pigs fly just fine. However, this is not necessarily a good idea...."
    RFC 1925
  3. Re:Next step: Embryos by eli+pabst · · Score: 3, Informative

    A person's skin DNA is the same as the rest of their DNA

    Technically it's not. Once a stem cell starts to differentiate, you see different patterns of epigenetic changes that alter which genes are actively expressed and which are silent. It's part of the reason why you don't have eyeball proteins expressed by your feet. In general, we've found that once you start initiating a cascade where a stem cell starts differentiating into something else, it's difficult to go backwards and "undo" the changes.