Researchers make nerve cells from new stem cells

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Researchers make nerve cells from new " stem " cells

Tue Feb 24, 5:23 PM

http://ca.news./s/reuters/090224/science/science_us_stemcells

_nerves

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Researchers said on Tuesday they had made a

type of nerve cell out of ordinary skin cells in a new approach to

stem cell research.

They made motor neurons out of induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS

cells -- a type of cell made from ordinary skin cells that resembles

human embryonic stem cells.

Scientists hope that iPS cells might offer a substitute for embryonic

stem cells and a short-cut to tailored medical therapy for a range of

diseases.

Motor neurons make muscles contract, and being able to make new motor

neurons might help treat diseases such as amyotrophic lateral

sclerosis, or ALS, the team at the University of California Los

Angeles reported.

" IPS-derived cells appeared to follow a normal developmental

progression associated with motor neuron formation, " they wrote in

the journal Stem Cells.

They looked like neurons taken from human embryonic stem cells, the

researchers added.

Stem cells are the body's master cells, and a type taken from days-

old embryos, called embryonic stem cells, have the ability to morph

into any cell or tissue type in the body.

Researchers have identified the genes needed to turn back the clock

in a cell and make it act like one of those baby cells, and several

teams found a way last year to do it -- calling the result iPS cells.

Lowry and colleagues used the method to reprogram skin

fibroblasts back to an embryonic state, and then turned them into

motor neurons.

Next, they will attach their neurons to muscle cells and see if they

can make them contract. The hope would be someday to use a skin

sample from a patient to generate a tissue transplant, or perhaps to

build a library of cell types from healthy donors to treat genetic

diseases.

(Reporting by Maggie Fox; Editing by Will Dunham and Cooney)