One more step towards stem cells

A group of American scientists claimed to have extended the findings of Japanese researchers' last month's discovery of human skin stem cells, the most important finding in 2007.

Japanese scientists have put four genes into skin cells taken from mice and an adult, to lose information about the specific cell characteristics of these cells to become a functional cell type. very similar to stem cells (called iPS). American scientists at Boston Children's Hospital now extract iPS from young skin and skin samples from a healthy volunteer.

This is an important finding when one step closer to stem cell creation from patients directly. This can help get stem cells with the same genetic code from the patient and therefore will not be eliminated by the body when transplanting the tissue.

Stem cells are cell types that can create 220 different types of cells of the human body. Scientists hope they can later make stem cells in the laboratory to replace those that are diseased or lost by accident or war.

PHAN LAM