Embryonic Stem Cells from Mouse Skin

Scientists have created embryonic stem cells in mice without destroying embryos in the process, potentially removing the major controversy over work in this field. Embryonic stem cells are special because they are pluripotent, meaning they can develop into virtually any kind of tissue type. They therefore offer the promise of customized cells for therapy.

The work, which appears in the June 6 online issue of Nature, was led by Rudolf Jaenisch, a member of the Whitehead Institute and a professor of biology at MIT. His colleagues on the work are from Whitehead, MIT, Massachusetts General Hospital, the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and Harvard Medical School.

Somatic cell nuclear transfer ("therapeutic cloning") offers the hope of one day creating customized embryonic stem cells with a patient's own DNA. In this process, an individual's DNA would be placed into an egg, resulting in a blastocyst that houses a supply of stem cells. But to access these cells, researchers must destroy a viable embryo.

Now, Jaenisch and colleagues have demonstrated that embryonic stem cells can be created without eggs. By genetically manipulating mature skin cells taken from a mouse, the scientists transformed these cells back into a state identical to that of an embryonic stem cell. No eggs were used, and no embryos destroyed.

"These reprogrammed cells, by all criteria that we can apply, are indistinguishable from embryonic stem cells," says Jaenisch.

Tags: ESC, Embryonic Stem Cells, egg

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