Stanford researchers recently succeeded in changing mice skins cells directly in to bloods cells. The current method for such transformations requires the intermediate step of first turning the skin cells into induced pluripotent stem cells.
According to the researchers, this new method is simpler and easier. Researchers will now work on direcet conversion of other types of cells.
Here's an aritcle from the Milwaukee Wisconsin Journey Sentinel that gives a great overview of this new breakthrough.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
lincRNAs improve cell reprogramming 8x
A recent study by Harvard and MIT researchers uncovered a potential breakthrough for developing iPSC therapies. The reseachers dicovered the lincRNAs play a vital role in cellular reprogramming. Apparently, lincRNAs are not only required to create induced pluripotent stem cells, but elevated levels of lincRNAs increases the efficiency of the process. Here are a few extracts from a Harvard Crimson article:
"In the study, the researchers detected elevated levels of lincRNAs in induced pluripotent stem cells, and found that the lincRNAs are also targeted by pluripotency reprogramming factors...The full article can be found at www.thecrimson.com
In fact, using lincRNAs increased the success rates of the reprogramming process up to eight times, compared to existing methods that do not use these molecules.
This finding may have significant implications for developing therapeutic interventions, Rinn said."
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