Source: Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions
Posted: October 20, 2005
Summary:
Researchers from Johns Hopkins have discovered the presence of functional ion channels in human embryonic stem cells (ESCs). These ion channels act like electrical wires and permit ESCs, versatile cells that possess the unique ability to become all cell types of the body, to conduct and pass along electric currents. If researchers could selectively block some of these channels in implanted cells, derived from stem cells, they may be able to prevent potential tumor development.
