Researchers Detour Need for Embryo to Get Stem Cells

In a first step toward developing tailor-made medical therapies, two separate teams of researchers announced today that they had transformed ordinary skin cells into batches of cells that look and act like embryonic stem cells, but without using cloning technology and without making embryos.

Called the induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS), the generated cells look and act exactly like embryonic stem cells, the master cells that give rise to every cell and tissue in the body, the scientists noted. The cells show capability of morphing into any of the 220 cell types of the body.

Both teams used four genes to transform ordinary skin cells called fibroblasts into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS).

While Thomson’s team worked with foreskin cells from a newborn using OCT4, NANOG, SOX2 and LIN28 gene mutations to develop their iPS’s, Yamanaka’s team reprogrammed skin cells from the face of a 36-year-old woman. They however used a slightly different cocktail of genes, OCT3/4, SOX2, CMYC, and KLF4, to get their iPS cells.

Because of their ability to turn into any kind of tissue, embryonic stem cells are considered the key to regenerative medicine. The stem cells provide an endless source of replacement of parts of organs affected by diseases such as Diabetes, Parkinson and Cancer.

"We are now in a position to be able to generate patient and disease-specific stem cells, without using human eggs or embryos," Yamanaka noted.

Opening new horizons in the field of medicine, "These cells should be useful in understanding disease mechanisms, searching for effective and safe drugs, and treating patients with cell therapy," he added.

However, the new study is not completely ready for use in people yet. "More research is necessary to determine how closely related these cells are to embryonic stem cells", Thomson reported.

While, James Thomson of the University of Wisconsin, Madison along with his colleagues report their findings in the journal Science, the other team of researchers led by Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University, Japan report theirs in journal Cell.