Stem Cell Research Blog carries an important summary of work recently published in Nature.
In a breakthrough in medical sciences, Canadian researchers have pioneered a new method to turn skin tissues into stem cells.
Though American and Japanese scientists have recently turned human skin cells into cells that act like embryonic stem cells, they were forced to use a virus to help re-programme skin cells to develop into a state similar to stem cells. This risked damaging the DNA of the skin cells by the virus, raising the possibility of cancers.
Andreas Nagy of Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital, who led the research, used a novel method to introduce four re-programming genes into skin cells, restoring them to an embryonic-like state. Nagy and his team used a jumping gene or piggyback - which is a mobile piece of DNA - which (in species like moths and corn) hops from chromosome to chromosome, inserting itself randomly into the genome. Jumping genes create genetic variability in species, helping them to adapt to changing conditions. After triggering the restoration of stem cell like properties the modified gene was removed from the cells.
Full story here.
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There is a group of physicians, patients and other interested people working together to get treatment with adult stem cells legalized in the U.S. as it should be. Please ask your family and friends to sign up ("JOIN"), and get as many doctors to sign up as well. Please see The American Stem Cell Therapy Association site
www.stemcelldocs.org
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