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...