Research news: Skin cells rewind to stem cells

The News:
Skin cells rewind to stem cells
Sick patients' cells have been reverted to their embryonic state, paving way for therapy.
By Karen Kaplan Los Angeles Times
Article Last Updated: 08/01/2008 12:05:47 AM MDT
Scientists have created the first personalized stem cells for patients with a genetic disease by rewinding their skin cells to an embryonic state, according to a study published Thursday in the online edition of Science.
The researchers then converted some of those stem cells into the two kinds of brain cells that cause their crippling disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease.
Stem-cell experts said they were delighted — though not surprised — to see proof that the reprogramming technique worked on human cells from a sick patient. Previously, human versions of the so-called induced pluripotent stem cells had only been made from skin samples provided by healthy subjects.
"It is quite amazing and an important step that should allow the development of experimental and therapeutic interventions for this disease," said Kathrin Plath, a researcher at the Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA, who was not involved in the study.
The new cells were derived from 3-millimeter patches of skin removed from the arm of an 82-year-old woman and her 89-year-old sister, who share a rare genetic mutation that causes about 2 percent of ALS cases.
The scientists from Harvard University and Columbia University focused on the rare form of ALS in part to test whether cells from elderly patients could be reprogrammed, said biologist Kevin Eggan of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. Read on...

The Research:
Read the research behind this story in the journal Science. (click on Full text-pdf)