Stem cells in "revolutionary" boost

 

2/5/2014

Stem cel l s i n "r evol uti onar y" boost - Channel NewsAsi a

Stem cells in "revolutionary" boost Email Print

Scientists on Wednesday reported a simple way to turn animal cells cell s back to a youthful, neutra n eutrall stat s tate, e, a feat hailed as a "game-changer" in the quest to grow  transplant tissue in the lab. PHOTOS

Stem cells viewed on a screen at the University of Connecticut's Stem Cell Institute Institu te in Farmington. (AFP/Spencer (A FP/Spencer Platt) PARIS: Scientist Scientistss on Wednesday reported a simple way to turn turn animal cells back to a youthful, youthful, neutral state, a feat hailed as a "game-changer" in the quest to http://www.channel newsasi a.com/news/heal th/stem- cell s- in/973072.html

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2/5/2014

Stem cel l s i n "r evol uti onar y" boost - Channel NewsAsi a

tissue in the lab. grow transplant tissue The research, reported in the journal Natu N ature, re, could be the third great g reat advance advance in stem cells -- a futu futuristic ristic field that aims to reverse Alzheimer's, cancer and other crippling crippli ng or lethal diseases. The latest breakthrough breakthrough comes from Japan, as did its predecessor which earned its inventor a Nobel Prize. The new approach, provided it overcomes safety hurdles, could smash cost and technical technic al barriers in stem s tem-cell -cell research, said independent commentat commentators. ors. "If it works in man, this could be the game-changer that ultimately makes a wide range of cell therapies therapies available using the patient's patient's own cells as starting  material," mate rial," said s aid Chris Mason, a professor of regenerative medicine at University  University  College London. "The age of personalised medicine will have arrived." Stem cells are primitive cells that, as they grow, differentiat differentiate e into the various specialised speciali sed cells that make up the the different organs -- the brain, the heart, the kidney and so on. The goal is to create stem stem cells in the lab and nudge them to grow into these differentiated differentiat ed cells, thus replenishing organs damaged by disease or accident. One of the obstacles, though, is ensuring that these transplanted transplanted cells are not attacked as alien by the body's immune system. To achieve that, the stem cells would have to carry the patient's own genetic code, to identify them as friendly. The first step came came in 1998, 199 8, the use of cloning technology -- pioneered with Dolly the sheep -- to harvest stem cells from early-stage embryos grown from fr om the donor's own DNA. http://www.channel newsasi a.com/news/heal th/stem- cell s- in/973072.html

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2/5/2014

Stem cel l s i n "r evol uti onar y" boost - Channel NewsAsi a

Hugely versatile, these ""plurip pluripotent otent"" stem cells are controversial as the method entails destroying the embryo, something opposed by religious conservatives and others. In 2006, 2006 , a team led by Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University, University, who was w as a corecipient of the 2012 Nobel Prize for Medicine, created so-called induced induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS). With this, the team took mature cells and coded them with four genes, "rewinding" the cells' genetic programmes to return them to a juvenile state. The technique had to overcome an early hurdle of causing tumours in cells and still faces problems with efficiency -- less than one per cent of adult cells cells typically are reprogrammed successfully. The latest breakthrough, breakthrough, pioneered by Haruko Obokata Obokata at the RIKEN Center for Developmenta Develop mentall Biology in Kobe, takes an entirely different and surprisingly lowtech approach. 'Hallmarks of pluripotency'

White blood cells in newborn newb orn mice were returned to a versatile state by  incubating incuba ting them in a solutio solution n with high acidit acidity y for 25 minutes, followed by a five minute minut e spin in a centrifuge and a seven-day spell of imme immersion rsion in a growth culture. Called stimulus-trigg stimulus-triggered ered acquisition of pluripotency pluripotency (STAP) cells, the innovation innovatio n breaks new ground. Until now, only plant cells and not mammal cells, have been found to reprogramme back to a youthful state through simple environmental factors. "These STAP cells show s how all the hallmarks of pluripotency," pluripotency," Obokata said Tuesday  Tuesday  in an Internet briefing with journalists.

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2/5/2014

Stem cel l s i n "r evol uti onar y" boost - Channel NewsAsi a

STAP cells appear to have a limited ability tto o self-renew and it has yet to be seen if they can be acquired from humans. It took 13 years before the first trials with w ith embryonic stem cells cells and six years before the first iPS trials. Dusko Ilic, Ilic, a stem-cel stem-celll scientist at Kings College London, said the approach "is indeed revolut revolutionary." ionary." But he cautioned: cautioned: "It does not bring stem cell-based therapy closer." "We will w ill need to use the same precautions precautions for the cells generated in this way w ay as for the cells isolated from embryos or reprogrammed with a standard method," he said in comments reported by London's Science Media Centre. - AFP/nf   

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