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Cardiomyocytes, the workhorse cells that make up the beating heart, can now be made cheaply and abundantly in the laboratory. Writing this week (May 28, 2012) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of Wisconsin scientists describes a way to transform human stem cells -- both embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells -- into the critical heart muscle cells by simple manipulation of one key developmental pathway. The technique promises a uniform, inexpensive and far more efficient alternative to the complex bath of serum or growth factors now used to nudge blank slate stem cells to...

A team of researchers from Johns Hopkins University and the National Human Genome Research Institute has evaluated the whole genomic sequence of stem cells derived from human bone marrow cells -- so-called induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells -- and found that relatively few genetic changes occur during stem cell conversion by an improved method. The findings, reported in the March issue of Cell Stem Cell, the official journal of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR), will be presented at the annual ISSCR meeting in June. "Our results show that human iPS cells accrue genetic changes at about the...

Enlarge Image Gene fix. Red cells in this slice of mouse liver are making a human protein called A1At. Credit: K. YUSA ET AL., NATURE (ADVANCED ONLINE EDITION) ©2011 MACMILLAN PUBLISHERS LTD. Researchers have taken a step toward showing how stem cells might one day be used to help patients born with a deadly liver disease. The researchers corrected a DNA spelling error in patient skin cells that had been converted into so-called induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, then coaxed the cells to form liver cells that seemed to function normally in mice. The approach is still a long...

Medical researchers' hopes of replacing politically fraught embryonic stem (ES) cells with stem cells derived from adult tissues have suffered a setback. Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, created by turning back the developmental clock on adult tissues, and ES cells display similar gene-expression patterns, and both can produce any of the various tissues in the human body. But patterns of epigenetic changes — alterations that affect gene expression without changing the DNA sequence — tell a different story about iPS cells, a team led by Joseph Ecker, a molecular geneticist at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, reports online...

Stem cells made from mature cells and rewound to an embryonic-like state retain a distinct "memory" of their past that might limit their potential for therapeutic use, scientists reported Wednesday in the journal Nature. [...] They looked at 1.2 billion places in each genome where such chemical markers [epigenomes] exist. The analysis was unusually rigorous — and therefore unusually revealing, Ecker said. Earlier studies examined representative regions in the genome, rather than the whole thing. [...] For the most part, the contents of Ecker's metaphorical rooms looked alike. But when they zoomed in, inconsistencies emerged. In a side-by-side comparison of...

Enlarge Image New fate. Applying synthetic RNA for a muscle master-control gene turns embryonic cells into muscle cells. Credit: Warren et al., Cell Stem Cell, Advance Online Publication (2010) Four years ago, scientists took a major step toward overcoming the biggest ethical hurdle in stem cell research. Instead of using cells derived from embryos, researchers found a way to make adult cells behave as though they were embryonic. Simply inserting extra copies of four genes into these cells gave them the power to develop into almost any cell type in the body—a potential boon for studying and ultimately treating...

Japanese researchers coax soft, living tissue from inside extracted wisdom teeth into forming stem cells. Scientists have found a new and relatively accessible supply line for stem cells that can grow into any type of cell in the human body -- extracted teeth. Like cells from embryos, the soft living tissue from inside teeth can be induced to become what are known as pluripotent stem cells, which have the potential to form several different cell types. Unlike embryonic cells, which are extracted from days-old human embryos, generating stem cells from dental pulp is a relatively non-invasive and non-controversial process. Studies...

Key difference between reprogrammed adult mouse cells and embryonic stem cells discovered.Stem-cell researchers have puzzled over why reprogrammed cells taken from adult tissues are often slower to divide and much less robust than their embryo-derived counterparts.Now, a team has discovered the key genetic difference between embryonic and adult-derived stem cells in mice. If confirmed in humans, the finding could help clinicians to select only the heartiest stem cells for therapeutic applications and disease modelling.Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells are created by reprogramming adult cells, and outwardly seem indistinguishable from embryonic stem (ES) cells. Both cell types are pluripotent — they...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – In a surprise result that can help in the understanding of both aging and cancer, researchers working with an engineered type of stem cell said they reversed the aging process in a rare genetic disease. The team at Children's Hospital Boston and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute were working with a new type of cell called induced pluripotent stem cells or iPS cells, which closely resemble embryonic stem cells but are made from ordinary skin cells. In this case, they wanted to study a rare, inherited premature aging disorder called dyskeratosis congenita. The blood marrow disorder resembles...

Nature Methods' Method of the Year 2009 goes to induced pluripotency for its potential for biological discovery. This series of articles—and the related video—showcase how induced pluripotency is coming into its own in 2009 as a tool for discovery in both basic and disease biology and explore the incredible impact this area promises to have in biological research. The Methods to Watch feature provides a glimpse of future Methods of the Year and the Reader's Choice shows methods nominated by readers and editors, and the votes that they received...

Abstract A brief overview of methods for reprogramming to induced pluripotency and of the properties of induced pluripotent stem cells. Introduction What is induced pluripotency? Pluripotency—the ability to make all cell types of the body—is a property possessed by a few cells in the early mammalian embryo, those belonging to the blastocyst inner cell mass. Embryonic stem (ES) cells are derived by in vitro culture of the inner cell mass and are also pluripotent. As the embryo develops, its cells become progressively more specialized and pluripotency is lost, although somatic tissues retain what are called multipotent cells (or adult stem...

Abstract Rapid progress with induced pluripotent stem cells is bringing scientists closer to understanding their strengths and weaknesses as embryonic stem cell stand-ins. Introduction In 2006, with formidable legal and technical obstacles keeping the promise of embryonic stem cells (ESCs) in check, Shinya Yamanaka's announcement was truly a scientific 'shot heard around the world'. He and his team at Kyoto University had reprogrammed adult mouse fibroblasts into so-called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs)1, opening the stem cell field to legions of eager scientists and offering the promise of unprecedented capabilities for targeted disease research using stem cells derived directly from...

Monya Baker is Technology Editor at Nature and Nature Methods Correspondence to: Monya Baker1 e-mail: m.baker@us.nature.com Abstract Now that the generation of induced pluripotent stem cells is becoming routine, researchers can get on to the more exciting prospect of using the cells to make discoveries in disease and basic biology. Monya Baker reports. Introduction As Shinya Yamanaka finished the experiments that would win him the 2009 Lasker prize, a stem-cell fraud was prominent in his thoughts. In 2005, Woo Suk Hwang had rocketed to star status for reportedly developing a technique to generate human embryonic stem (ES) cells genetically matched...

Famous for its antioxidant properties and role in tissue repair, vitamin C is touted as beneficial for illnesses ranging from the common cold to cancer and perhaps even for slowing the aging process. Now, a study published online on December 24th by Cell Press in the journal Cell Stem Cell uncovers an unexpected new role for this natural compound: facilitating the generation of embryonic-like stem cells from adult cells. Over the past few years, we have learned that adult cells can be reprogrammed into cells with characteristics similar to embryonic stem cells by turning on a select set of genes....

Al Gore on board for $20M stem cell venture

Induced pluripotent stem cells could be a boon for regenerative medicine.REUTERS/Junying Yu/University of Wisconsin-Madison Given the right conditions, any adult cell can be coaxed into becoming stem-cell like, according to a team of researchers based in the United States. The team, led by Rudolf Jaenisch of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts, were also able to speed up the process, cutting the time required for cells to become stem-cell like by around half. The results are good news for those battling to work out the complex biology of these cells, know as induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells...

Live-cell fluorescence imaging identifies bona fide reprogrammed cells.Fluorescence imaging could help resolve whether iPS cells have been properly programmed.Alamy The next tools for reprogramming cells to an embryonic-like state might just be a camera and a set of fluorescently tagged antibodies. Researchers imaged more than a million human cells in vitro as they changed from skin tissue cells, known as fibroblasts, into colonies of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. As expected, many similar-looking colonies appeared, but only very few consisted of fully reprogrammed iPS cells. After assessing which were which, researchers led by Thorsten Schlaeger and George Daley of the...

Alternative tissues shown to yield reprogrammed cells aplenty. Fat cells are more easily turned into iPS cells than fibroblasts.Punchstock Fat cells and pigment-producing skin cells can be reprogrammed into stem cells much faster and more efficiently than the skin cells that are usually used — suggesting large bellies and little black moles could provide much-needed material for deriving patient-specific stem cells."More than one type of adult somatic cell can serve as a target for reprogramming to a pluripotent state," says William Lowry, a stem-cell biologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, who was not involved in the research. "You...

Knocking out genes with a role in cancer prevention helps produce stem cells.Switching off the p53 pathway helped researchers to make stem-like cells.Wikimedia Commons Specialized adult cells made 'immortal' through the blockade of an antitumour pathway can be turned into stem-like cells quickly and efficiently.The findings — which should make it easier to generate patient-specific cells from any tissue type, including certain diseased cells that have proved difficult to transform — suggest that cellular reprogramming and cancer formation are inextricably linked.Since 2006, when Shinya Yamanaka of Japan's Kyoto University first created induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells1 — which can develop...

The decision to offer New York women up to $10,000 to donate their eggs for stem cell research, payable by taxpayers, is "incredibly irresponsible and immoral," critics told FOXNews.com. New York's decision to offer women in the state up to $10,000 to donate their eggs for stem cell research, payable by taxpayers, is "incredibly irresponsible and immoral," critics told FOXNews.com. Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America, said the move -- the first of its kind nationwide -- treats women as "commodities, almost like cows" and could lead to cash-strapped women in other states to partake in similar programs....