Posted on 12/04/2009 1:18:49 AM PST by bogusname
Israeli scientists have discovered a way to create beating heart cells using human skin cells reprogrammed to become stem cells. The findings could lead to advances in disease research, and could in theory be used to repair damaged or diseased tissues.
Published in the latest issue of Circulation, the findings by Professor Lior Gepstein of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology could make it possible to clinically repair damaged human hearts...
(Excerpt) Read more at israelnationalnews.com ...
I wonder what the advantage of using this approach over the also-proven technique of using bone marrow-obtained stem cells to repair cardiac damage.
I’m not sure if the ones from bone marrow are also induced plurpotent (with all the resultant cancer risks) as these skin ones are, but it would make horse-sense to me that bone-marrow would be better, since it is more closely related (my assumption) to heart tissue.
Bone marrow may possess some magic factor that would produce better stem cell material but on the surface anyway it doesn’t sound logical. Stem cell material obeys whatever the surrounding DNA tells it to do and becomes whatever that DNA tells it to become. Using skins cells would make it much easier on the patient and it would still have the patient’s DNA and likewise no problems with rejection.
...........but we sure see Israeli genius coming up with lots of wonderful scientific advances.
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