Published online 7 November 2010 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2010.588
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Cellular 'alchemy' transforms skin into blood
Direct conversion of cell types could offer safer, simpler treatments than stem cells.
The right cocktail of chemicals converts human skin cells directly into blood.www.ingrampublishing.com
Human skin cells can be transformed into blood without first being sent through a primordial, stem-cell-like state, according to a ground-breaking study.
The breakthrough, published online today inNature1, follows work earlier this year showing that fibroblast cells from mouse skin, treated with the right cocktail of chemicals, can be transformed into neurons2and heart muscle3. However, it is the first study to accomplish this feat with human cells, and the first to create progenitor cells — in this case for blood.
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www.nature.com/news/2010/101107/full/news.2010.588.html