Scientists at McMaster University Canada authored a study published in Nature. The scientists used directed differentiation to turn skin cells into hematopoietic progenitor cells to produce other blood cells.
To transform skin cells directly into blood, the researchers had to inject a virus into a gene called OCT4 in skin cells. The altered cells were then soaked in a solution of proteins called cytokines. This is when the skin cells would differentiate into different kinds of blood cells such as red blood cells, platelets and white blood cells.
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Normally, researchers try to turn adult skin cells into stem cells, so the stem cells can turn into any other cell in the body. But the Canadian researchers didn’t have to do that. The direct route also eliminated the chance of the cells turning into tumors.
This technology has so many implications all the way from treating diabetes or Alzheimer to treating amputees! In fact one day the fruit of this technology could mean, hopefully, the exclusion of the word disability from the English dictionary.
Sources : Smartplanet
i hope we can see this in applied medicine soon!
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