Sunday, March 2, 2014

Transforming Skin Cells to Liver Cells

Scientists have been able to transform skin cells into cells that resemble heart cells and pancreas cells for awhile now, but they've had a lot of trouble finding a way to make them fully functional. Recently, some scientists have found a way to transform skin cells to mature, functioning liver cells. They realized that the method they were using to transform the cells was going to work no matter how much they tweaked it, so they took a brand new idea and found success; they were able to transform skin cells to liver cells almost perfectly. This breakthrough is a huge step towards solving many liver problems present today, predominantly liver failure. Read the article here for all the details.

NOS Themes
Science is Collaborative - Scientists from Gladstone Institutes worked with scientists from UC San Francisco
Science is Based on Evidence - To make sure the cells were functional, they were tested in mice.
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2 comments:

  1. UnknownMarch 2, 2014 at 7:26 PM

    This article reminded me of stem cells, which are cells that can be manipulated to also match other organ cells. For example, a stem cell can remain a stem cell or can be given a specialized function, such as a muscle cell, red blood cell, or a brain cell. I found your article very interesting and I think that this method could lead to a lot of scientific progress and breakthroughs in regards to cell regeneration or replacement.

    Here is a link to an article about stem cells:

    http://stemcells.nih.gov/info/basics/pages/basics1.aspx

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  2. UnknownMarch 2, 2014 at 7:50 PM

    I also found some interesting articles relating to cells and how they can be used to function as other cells. For instance, i found one article talking about how doctors are attempting to extract stem cells from fat to grow appendages such as ears and noses. This aims to treat conditions like microtia which can lead to missing or deformed ear.
    you can read more about this here: http://www.financialexpress.com/news/new-technique-can-grow-ears-nose-from-body-fat/1230543?rhnews

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