Stem cells without embryos
Two separate teams of researchers announced on Tuesday they had transformed ordinary skin cells into batches of cells that look and act like embryonic stem cells — but without using cloning technology and without making embryos.Their breakthroughs could make possible the long-sought goal of tailor-made medicine, but without the political, scientific and ethical roadblock of using human embryos.
Both teams call the new cells induced pluripotent stem cells and say they look and act like embryonic stem cells — the master cells that give rise to every cell and tissue in the body.
“We can now envisage a time when a simple approach can be used to produce stem cells that are able to form any tissue from a small sample taken from any of us,” Ian Wilmut of the Scottish Centre for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Edinburgh, said in a statement.
This is a very big deal.
Stem cells can also be found in amniotic fluid.
Its pretty common now to find pregnant women saving the amniotic fluid and having it frozen at the time of birth. We did that ourselves, storing the fluid for the future should our child get cancer, or some other lymphoma. You have to ask for that to be done. Most people don’t think to do it.
(After radiation, the “frozen” fluid can be re-introduced back into the person where the stem cells will migrate and re-establish themselves.)
Stem cells from amniotic fluid already are used for research. But more types just add to the opportunities to find cures.