Stem Cell Discovery Important for Regenerative Medicine

A new stem cell discovery might one day lead to a more streamlined process for obtaining stem cells, which in turn could be used in the development of replacement tissue for failing body parts, according to scientists.  Building on a strategy that involves reprogramming adult cells back to an embryonic state in which they again have the potential to become any type of cell, University of California/San Francisco (UCSF; California, USA), researchers have genetically removed multiple barriers to reprogramming, finding that the efficiency of generation of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells can be greatly increased.  Reporting that: “Genetic interaction studies of endocytosis or ubiquitination reveal that barrier pathways can act in linear, parallel, or feedforward loop architectures to antagonize reprogramming,” the study authors submit that: “These results provide a global view of barriers to human cellular reprogramming.”