Breakthrough: Embyonic stem cells from non-embryo sources
November 20, 2007 by Grace Ibay
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
I haven’t decided yet what side to take on the stem cell debate. Being on the field of genetics doesn’t make it any easier for me, because somehow the debate is not about science but more about ethics.
So reading of this New York Times news of a new “line” of embryonic stem cells may bring some of those ethical concerns out of the debating table.
Two teams of scientists are reporting today that they turned human skin cells into what appear to be embryonic stem cells without having to make or destroy an embryo.
How?
The scientists added four genes and reprogrammed the chromosomes of skin cells, enabling the cells to turn into any cell type of the body. The inserted genes function as master regulator genes whose role is to turn other genes on or off.
Until now, the only way to get such human universal cells was to pluck them from a human embryo several days after fertilization, destroying the embryo in the process.
Scientists laud this as an important discovery and one that is “ethically uncomplicated.” The caveat? One of the inserted genes is a cancer gene.
Read more of this amazing discovery at Cell-pdf and Science.
[source: NYTimes]
Tags: science, discovery, stem cell, research, embryo, cell
Let me quote the last line of the actual paper:
“Human iPS cells, however, are not identical to hES cells: DNA microarray analyses detected differences between the two pluripotent stem cell lines. Further studies are essential to determine whether human iPS cells can replace hES in medical applications.”
This effort has just been a costly, though interesting, diversion.