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The techniques may not be the usual, but YOUNG stem cells currently still come from babies/embryos/umbilical cords.
Scientists showed they could make stem cells from adult cells more than a year ago, but the cells could never be used in patients because the procedure involved injecting viruses that could cause cancer. Overcoming the problem has been a major stumbling block in efforts to make stem cells fulfil their promise of transforming the future of medicine.
Now, scientists at the universities of Edinburgh and Toronto have found a way to achieve the same feat without using viruses, making so-called induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell therapies a realistic prospect for the first time.
In 2007, researchers in Japan and America announced they had turned adult skin cells into stem cells by injecting them with a virus carrying four extra genes. Because the virus could accidentally switch on cancer genes, the cells would not be safe enough to use in patients.
In two papers published in the journal Nature, Keisuke Kaji in Edinburgh and Andras Nagy in Toronto, describe how they reprogrammed cells using a safer technique called electroporation. This allowed the scientists to do away with viruses and ferry genes into the cells through pores. Once the genes had done their job, the scientists removed them, leaving the cells healthy and intact.
Not there yet. The OP is talking about embryonic stem cells.
The cells were used to create eggs, which were fertilised to produce baby mice. These later had their own babies. If the technique could be adapted for people, it could help infertile couples have children and even allow women to overcome the menopause. But experts say many scientific and ethical hurdles must be overcome.
Healthy and fertile
Stem cells are able to become any other type of cell in the body from blood to bone, nerves to skin. Last year the team at Kyoto University managed to make viable sperm from stem cells. Now they have performed a similar feat with eggs. They used stem cells from two sources: those collected from an embryo and skin-like cells which were reprogrammed into becoming stem cells.
The first step, reported in the journal Science, was to turn the stem cells into early versions of eggs. A "reconstituted ovary" was then built by surrounding the early eggs with other types of supporting cells which are normally found in an ovary. This was transplanted into female mice.
Surrounding the eggs in this environment helped them to mature. IVF techniques were used to collect the eggs, fertilise them with sperm from a male mouse and implant the fertilised egg into a surrogate mother. Dr Katsuhiko Hayashi, from Kyoto University, told the BBC: "They develop to be healthy and fertile offspring." Those babies then had babies of their own, whose "grandmother" was a cell in a laboratory dish.
Devastating blow