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Turning skin into embryonic stem cells

Nature Medicine volume 13, pages 783–784 (2007)Cite this article

Introducing four genes into mouse skin fibroblasts reprograms these cells into embryonic stem cells. If similar techniques work in human cells, patient-specific stem cells for tissue engineering and cell-based therapies may be closer to reality.

Cut off the limb of a salamander and it grows back completely. Stem-cell scientists and tissue engineers dream of unlocking the same regenerative capacity in adult differentiated mammalian cells. This dream has potentially come closer to reality with three recent reports that describe the ability of four genes to completely reprogram mouse skin cells (fibroblasts) into stem cells possessing many, if not all, characteristics of authentic embryonic stem cells (ESCs)1,2,3.

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Figure 1: Hypothetical strategy for using iPS cells in cell-based therapies.

Katie Ris

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Howard Y. Chang is in the Program in Epithelial Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA howchang@stanford.edu,

    Howard Y Chang

  2. George Cotsarelis is in the Dept. of Dermatology, Kligman Laboratories, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA. cotsarel@mail.med.upenn.edu,

    George Cotsarelis

Authors
  1. Howard Y Chang
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  2. George Cotsarelis
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Chang, H., Cotsarelis, G. Turning skin into embryonic stem cells. Nat Med 13, 783–784 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm0707-783

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