| Packard Center for ALS Research at Johns Hopkins |
| iPSCs less pliable than ESCs?July 19, 2010, TheScientist.com Stem cells derived from adult tissues may be less able to differentiate into different tissues than those derived from embryos, because adult cells appear to retain an "epigenetic memory" of the cell type from which they were derived, according to two mouse studies published this week in Nature journals. The papers show that induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) "are not truly similar to [embryonic stem cells] when examined at a high resolution," cell biologist Mahendra Rao of Life Technologies in California, who was not involved in the research, told The Scientist in an email. iPSCs' lack of flexibility appears to stem from differences in how their DNA is methylated. iPSCs are often created by infusing adult tissues with genetic factors that make the cells regress in their development to an embryonic-like state, capable of differentiating into any of the many tissue types in the body. But stem cell biologists have long suspected that iPSCs may not be as truly pliable, or "pluripotent," as embryonic stem cells (ESCs). | Events
|
 | © 2010, The Robert Packard Center for ALS Research at Johns Hopkins. All rights reserved. |
