The research of imitation embryonic stem cells is progressing continuously

two U.S.-Japan research groups announced on November 21st that they had successfully transformed human skin cells into stem cells that are almost comparable to embryonic stem cells, known as "iPS cells", also known as "skin stem cells." For more than a month, the "iPS cell" research has been progressing: on November21,, a team from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a team at Kyoto University in Japan released new results from their own stem cell researchThe basic principle is to use gene reprogramming technology to implant a set of four genes into skin cells, through gene re-arrangement, skin cells have embryonic stem cell functionIn the experiment, the Japanese team implanted four genes into skin cells, one of which was cancer-relatedAlthough the U.Steam did not use the gene, they used skin cells from newborns, and the "slow virus" used to carry the gene in their study also rewrites the genetic information of chromosomesThe results of the two research groups are some distance from clinical use because of the use of risk genes and viruses, January 6
, a team at Kyoto University in Japan improved their approach to "imitation" of embryonic stem cells by changing the culture environment by discarding a cancer-related gene, improving the safety of the stem cell technology in clinical applicationsScientists at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research reported in the January
7 issue of the Journal of Science that they have made progress in treating sickle cell emis in mice using stem cells modified from skin cellsThis is the first attempt by the scientific community to use "iPS cells" for medical research1
, Harvard University's team reported in the British journal Nature that
they extracted skin cells from volunteers , and successfully transformed them into "iPS cells." The two U.S.-Japan research groups used laboratory-grown human skin cells to conduct research While it may seem like a small difference
, the latest results from the Harvard team suggest that it is possible to extract skin cells from anyone for "iPS cells" This brings the "iPS cell" study a small step forward