Scientists Turn Human Skin Cells Into Stem Cells

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Multipotency or pluripotency refers to the ability of stem cells to grow into a variety of cell types.

However, the journey from laboratory to patient therapy is still a long one, experts said.

"This is a proof of principle, but, in terms of application, there are many steps in between," said Dr. Robert Tsai, assistant professor in the Center for Cancer and Stem Cell Biology at Texas A&M Health Science Center Institute of Biosciences and Technology in Houston.

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The achievements followed closely on the heels of another breakthrough: Last week, U.S. scientists announced that they had created dozens of cloned embryos from a 10-year-old male macaque, a primate. This puts science one step closer to human cloning, those authors stated.

Embryonic stem cells are pluripotent, meaning they have the ability to develop into virtually any cell type in the body. The hope is that such cells may one day yield treatments or cures for diseases such as diabetes, liver failure, spinal injury, stroke, Alzheimer's disease and heart disease.

However, harvesting embryonic stem cells involves destroying a viable embryo, stirring much political debate. In the United States, embryonic stem cell research has been severely limited since August 2001, when President George W. Bush placed limits on federal funding of the field and restricted the number of embryonic stem cell lines that could be used.

Since that time, researchers have been racing to find other sources of viable stem cells. The approach documented in these two studies would circumvent the need for embryos and, thus, would bypass any controversy. The findings of Yamanaka's team are detailed in the Nov. 30 print issue of Cell, and the Wisconsin group's work was released online Tuesday by Science.

Last year, Yamanaka's team transformed mouse skin cells into pluripotent stem cells.

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