Scientists Transform Skin Cells Direct To Brain Cells,Bypassing the stem cell stage, researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine in California converted mouse skin cells directly into neural precursor cells, the cells that go on to form the three main types of cell in the brain and nervous system.
They write about their findings in the 30 January early online issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
They write about their findings in the 30 January early online issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
First, neural precursor cells can not only differentiate in to neurons, they can also become either of the other main types of cell in the nervous method: astrocytes & oligodendrocytes.
In the earlier study, the same team transformed mouse & human skin cells directly in to functional neurons. But this study is a substantial advance on the earlier for reasons.
Astrocytes are star-shaped glia cells that hold neurons in place, get nutrients to them, & digest parts of dead neurons. Oligodendrocytes make the myelin that insulates nerve fibers that connect neurons to another & lets them transmit signals.
& secondly, neural precursor cells are a more useful & versatile end-product for the lab, where they can be cultivated in giant numbers for transplantation or drug screening.
The senior author of the new study is Dr Marius Wernig, assistant professor of pathology & a member of Stanford's Institute for Stem Cell Biology & Regenerative Medicine. He told the press he & his colleagues were "thrilled" about the medical potential of their findings.
Induced pluripotency, where the patient's own cells are reprogrammed in to stem cells, appears to overcome the ethical & immune rejection issues of embryonic stem cells, except they introduce the risk of switching on genes that cause cancer. Although this risk can be reduced by screening out undesirable pluripotent cells, it introduces a cost.
However, he cautioned that more work is necessary before they can show a similar conversion from human skin cells is not only feasible & effective, but also safe.
"We've shown the cells can integrate in to a mouse brain & produce a missing protein important for the conduction of electrical signal by the neurons. This is important because the mouse model they used mimics that of a human genetic brain disease," said Wernig.
