A Kyoto University research group reportedly has generated from a mouse skin cell a new pluripotent cell that resembles an embryonic stem cell.
The online issue of the U.S. scientific journal Cell reported Thursday that Shinya Yamanaka and Assistant Kazutoshi Takahashi have succeeded in creating the pluripotent cell, which they named induced pluripotent stem, or iPS, cell. The iPS cell has similar characteristics to ES cells, which can grow into tissues and organs.
Using an embryonic stem cell in medicine is ethically controversial, as it is extracted from an embryo. With iPS cells, there would be no ethical problems as it does not involve an embryo. If human iPS cells can be created, patients undergoing transplants could have new organs with the same genes as their own, clearing the problem of postoperative rejection responses, and without ethical problems.
The group speculated that among the important gene factors in an embryonic stem cell, there should be some that can reprogram somatic cells and induce pluripotency that are characteristic to the factors in an embryonic stem cell in early development...
If you're a scientist and thus conversant with the technical language of the issue, you may want to read the full article from Cell. For the laymen, you will probably prefer reading through this Columbia, Missouri newspaper summary.
LifeNews.com reported on this back in July. See Researcher Turns Adult Mouse Skin Cells Into Embryonic Stem Cells at http://www.lifenews.com/bio1593.html
(Thanks for the reminder, Steve.)