Posted on 04/30/2008 1:12:39 PM PDT by stickman20089
April 30, 2008 -- New research shows that it may be possible to reprogram skin cells to act like embryonic stem cells, and then turn those stem cells into heart cells.
Scientists at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) have done that with mouse cells.
"I'm hoping that these scientific findings are the first step towards one day developing new therapies that I can offer my patients," Robb MacLellan, MD, UCLA associate professor of cardiology and physiology, says in a news release.
First, MacLellan's team reprogrammed mouse skin cells to become induced pluripotent cells, or iPS cells, which act like embryonic stem cells.
Next, the researchers coaxed the iPS cells to become immature heart cells. And then they developed those immature heart cells into several types of heart and blood cells. Details of their work appear in the May 1 online edition of Stem Cells.
What about people? In 2007, scientists in the U.S. and Japan reported successfully reprogramming human skin cells to become iPS cells.
God does work in mysterious ways. No?
Plunk your magic twanger, Froggy?
(Extra credit ... who said it ... on what show?)
The question IS legit ... How DOES a cell become a heart, or a leg or a wangus cell ... just tell it?
Or like a chameleon, you attach the cell to a heart and it grows a new heart ... ne'er mind ... I'm confusing myself.
How does a non-assigned cel become a heart?
Amazing, not a murdered embryo in sight.
I was thinking the same thing. God always seems to provide just what we need, when we need it. All it took was for these scientists to dismiss the notion of killing embryos for their stem cells, and work hard to find something else. God is showing them the way.
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