Cellular Microscope
In a step that helps alleviate one of the most controversial areas within medicine today, a group of scientists at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute located in Boston published a series of studies Thursday which reveal that artificial biological signals can reprogram common skin cells into entities that seem practically the same as embryonic stem cells.
The researchers have discovered an effective method to produce apparently safe alternatives to human embryonic stem cells that does not destroy human embryos. The same method could then change the cells into cells that could be utilized for transplants.
“This is going to be very exciting to the research community,” explained Children’s Hospital Boston’s Derrick J. Rossi, who directed the research published in the scientific journal Cell Stem Cell. “We now have an experimental paradigm for generating patient-specific cells highly efficiently and safely and also taking those cells to clinically useful cell types.”
The cells developed by this Harvard team, called iPS cells (induced pluripotent stem cells), will steer clear of the ethical objection and could even turn out to be better than embryonic stem cells in a number of ways. For instance, iPS cells might make it possible for researchers to take a readily available skin cell from virtually any individual and then work with it to generate perfectly duplicated cells, tissue and possibly even complete internal organs for transplants that would subsequently be immune to being rejected by the body.
While warning that the experiments must be duplicated in other places and investigated even more, additional scientists mentioned the approach seems to signify a significant advancement in the growing field of “regenerative medicine” that is designed to be able to produce customized treatments for individual patients.
