{"id":630,"date":"2007-11-21T10:02:00","date_gmt":"2007-11-21T09:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/epiphenom\/2007\/11\/a-dramatic-breakthough-stem-cells-from-skin-cells.html"},"modified":"2014-11-14T05:55:08","modified_gmt":"2014-11-14T04:55:08","slug":"stem-cells-from-skin-cells-dramatic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/epiphenom\/2007\/11\/stem-cells-from-skin-cells-dramatic.html","title":{"rendered":"A dramatic breakthough – stem cells from skin cells"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
\"Blogging<\/a><\/div>\n

Teams from Japan and the USA have today simultaneously reported making human embryonic-type stem cells from skin cells, rather than the conventional technique which uses embryonic cells (see refs below). So-called \u2018pluripotent\u2019 stem cells are vitally important for research and future medical treatments because of their ability to transform into different tissue types that can be used in any patient \u2013 so avoiding the problems of tissue rejection that have plagued attempts to use adult stem cells.<\/span><\/p>\n

The use of embryonic stem cells has been fiercely resisted by religious groups, despite the fact that they hold out the possibility of saving lives and curing currently untreatable disease. The ability to create pluripotent stem cells from adult tissue, rather than embryos, will not only mean that the supply of pluripotent stem cells becomes potentially unlimited, but will also allow this vital medical research to proceed without religious impediment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is like an earthquake for both the science and politics of stem cell research,\u201d says Jesse Reynolds<\/a>, policy analyst for the Center for Genetics and Society in Oakland, California.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n


Edinburgh team abandons human cloning<\/span><\/p>\n

The Edinburgh team, lead by Prof Wilmut, who made headlines in 1997 when they made the first ever animal clone (Dolly the Sheep), has announced that they are abandoning attempts the creation of stem cells from human embryos, in favour of the new technique. The BBC reports:<\/a><\/p>\n

Prof Wilmut said: \u201cWe\u2019ve not made this decision because it\u2019s ethically better.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me it\u2019s always been ethically acceptable to think that if you could use cells from a human embryo to develop a treatment for a disease like motor neurone disease, for which there is no treatment at present, then that is an acceptable thing to do.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Refs:<\/span><\/p>\n

Yu et al. Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Lines Derived from Human Somatic Cells. Science<\/span> 2007;DOI: 10.1126\/science.1151526<\/a><\/p>\n

Takahashi et al. Induction of Pluripotent Stem Cells from Adult Human Fibroblasts by Defined Factors. Cell<\/span> 2007; DOI:10.1016\/j.cell.2007.11.019<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Teams from Japan and the USA have today simultaneously reported making human embryonic-type stem cells from skin cells, rather than the conventional technique which uses embryonic cells (see refs below). So-called \u2018pluripotent\u2019 stem cells are vitally important for research and future medical treatments because of their ability to transform into different tissue types that can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2091,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nA dramatic breakthough - stem cells from skin cells<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Teams from Japan and the USA have today simultaneously reported making human embryonic-type stem cells from skin cells, rather than the conventional\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/epiphenom\/2007\/11\/stem-cells-from-skin-cells-dramatic.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A dramatic breakthough - 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