Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Rresearchers create heart and blood cells from reprogrammed skin cells

Source: University of California - Los Angeles
Date: April 30, 2008

Summary:

Stem cell researchers at UCLA were able to grow functioning cardiac cells using mouse skin cells that had been reprogrammed into cells with the same unlimited properties as embryonic stem cells. The finding is the first to show that induced pluripotent stem cells or iPS cells, which don’t involve the use of embryos or eggs, can be differentiated into the three types of cardiovascular cells needed to repair the heart and blood vessels.