Well, sort of. It turns out that the very same stem cells that are regenerating our skin day-in and day-out can be converted into embryonic stem cells by changing the cellular instructions.
Pregnant women know the value of excellent nutrition when stem cells are creating an entire person. Well, some of those same stem cells go on to continuously create new skin our entire lives. Maybe we should elevate out nutritional regimen for truly radiant and healthy skin.
USA Today reports:
A crescendo of discoveries pushed stem cells from the lab dish to news headlines this year. Only two years ago, a Japanese research team led by Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University announced a method for turning mouse skin cells into unspecialized ones that resembled embryonic stem cells, prized by biomedical researchers for the potential to turn into any kind of tissue. This year, teams made use of the discovery in human cells to earn "Breakthrough of the Year" status from Science magazine.
For the first time, two teams created families of induced pluripotent cells — unspecialized cells derived from specialized cells — from patients suffering 11 different diseases, including Parkinson's disease and juvenile diabetes. And a team led by Harvard's Doug Melton demonstrated "lineage switching" in a Nature journal study, switching ordinary kidney cells into specialized tissues that produce insulin in mice. The end goal of cell reprogrammers is to create immune-system-friendly transplant tissues for patients.
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Tuesday, December 30, 2008
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