Stem cell therapy is believed to be the next generation biomedical therapy that will revolutionize the world of medicine. The greatest problem involved in stem cell research is discovering easy ways of attaining stem cells. Stem cells are undifferentiated cells at the early stage of development. The main sources of human stem cells are human embryos and bone marrow. However, it is always not possible to gather stem cells from these sources. Scientists are striving to develop stem cells in the laboratory that would in future grow into full-fledged body parts.
In a ground breaking study, researchers of Kyoto University, Japan have been able to produce stem cells similar to that derived from human embryos from human skin cells. The feat achieved by the scientists in Japan have been carried further ahead by an American team led by George Daley of the Children’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.
The US scientists used the four genes that were delivered into the human skin cells to reprogram them to lose their capability to differentiate and develop into induced pluripotent stem cells or iPS to derive iPS from foetal lung cells and skin cells. The US researchers unlike their Japanese counterparts did not involve mouse cells along with human cells in their research but used cells from neo-natal and adult skins.
The US study has the advantage that helps develop iPS from specific organs that would prevent the body’s immune system from rejecting transplants as not its own.
Further study is required to develop iPS that is targeted to specific body organs and share similar genetic codes.
Image: MSN
Source: PhysOrg
