Scientists Turn Human Skin Cells Into Stem Cells

TUESDAY, Nov. 20 (HealthDay News) -- Two separate groups of scientists have succeeded in turning human skin cells into cells that are very similar -- but not identical -- to embryonic stem cells.

The two teams, one based in Japan and the other in Wisconsin, used slightly different methods to achieve essentially identical goals, researchers said.

"Embryonic stem cells can divide forever, and there has never been good evidence for such cells in adults, but this new paper shows a method to make cells essentially identical to embryonic stem cells," said James Thomson, senior author of the Wisconsin study and a professor in the departments of medicine and public health at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "This will change the ethical debate," he said at a teleconference held Tuesday.

"We are now in a position to be able to generate patient- and disease-specific stem cells, without using human eggs or embryos," added Dr. Shinya Yamanaka, senior author of the first paper, who is affiliated with Kyoto University in Japan and the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease in San Francisco. "These cells should be useful in understanding disease mechanisms, searching for effective and safe drugs, and treating patients with cell therapy," he said.

One outside exert agreed the achievement could shift research away from embryonic stem cells.

"Here's verification of another source of multipotent cells that could be useful for treating disease and would get around some of the ethical issues related to embryonic sources," Paul Sanberg, distinguished professor of neurosurgery and director of the University of South Florida Center for Aging and Brain Repair in Tampa, toldHealthDay. "It also demonstrates that there are many cells that can be reprogrammed in the body, and this is not going to be the last time we hear of other types of cells and other ways we can make multipotent."

Multipotency or pluripotency refers to the ability of stem cells to grow into a variety of cell types.

However, the journey from laboratory to patient therapy is still a long one, experts said.

"This is a proof of principle, but, in terms of application, there are many steps in between," said Dr. Robert Tsai, assistant professor in the Center for Cancer and Stem Cell Biology at Texas A&M Health Science Center Institute of Biosciences and Technology in Houston.

The achievements followed closely on the heels of another breakthrough: Last week, U.S. scientists announced that they had created dozens of cloned embryos from a 10-year-old male macaque, a primate. This puts science one step closer to human cloning, those authors stated.

Embryonic stem cells are pluripotent, meaning they have the ability to develop into virtuallyanycell type in the body. The hope is that such cells may one day yield treatments or cures for diseases such as diabetes, liver failure, spinal injury, stroke, Alzheimer's disease and heart disease.

However, harvesting embryonic stem cells involves destroying a viable embryo, stirring much political debate. In the United States, embryonic stem cell research has been severely limited since August 2001, when President George W. Bush placed limits on federal funding of the field and restricted the number of embryonic stem cell lines that could be used.