Stem cells made to mimic disease

Page last updated at 12:46 GMT, Monday, 7 April 2008 13:46 UK

Scientists have taken skin cells from patients with eight different diseases and turned them into stem cells.

The advance means scientists are moving closer to using stem cells from the patient themselves to treat disease.

This would mean they could circumvent the ethical and practical problems of using embryonic stem cells, which has sparked much opposition.

Researcher Dr Willy Lensch, of Harvard Medical School, said the technique had "incredible potential".

He said it could help scientists understand the earliest stages of human genetic disease.

In principle, they could be used to treat a wide range of disorders, from diabetes to Parkinson's.
READ more

Reprogrammed Stem Cells work on Parkinson's

A study in rodents suggests that skin cells can be transformed into neurons to treat neurodegeneration.

Tuesday, April 08, 2008
By Courtney Humphries

When researchers announced two years ago that they had found a way to turn ordinary skin cells into stem cells, it opened up the possibility that stem cell therapies might sidestep the logistical and ethical hurdles of obtaining stem cells from embryos. These "reprogrammed" stem cells seem to have the ability to transform into any kind of cell, a property known as pluripotency. But the concept has also met with skepticism about the abilities and potential dangers of the cells. A new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by scientists at MIT and Harvard shows that reprogrammed cells, also called induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, can become functioning neurons when transplanted into the brains of mice and rats; the researchers also showed that the cells can improve symptoms in a rat model of Parkinson's disease.

READ more