Researchers have found a way to create stem cells from adult liver cells without triggering DNA changes that have caused mutations and tumors in previous studies.
Though demonstrated only in mice so far, the result marks another key achievement in the fledgling science of cellular reprogramming. The hope is to create human, embryonic-like stem cells -- which can be turned into all the other tissue types of the body -- without using eggs or destroying embryos. That freshly derived tissue could then be transplanted into patients to treat various diseases [The Wall Street Journal].
A method of using adult cells to create stem cells was debuted by Japanese researchers in 2006.
By using viruses to insert key developmental genes, researchers coaxed human skin cells into an embryonic state, capable of growing into almost any other type of tissue.... But there was a catch: Viruses used to reset the cells tended ...
