Biotech Updates

Researchers Create Stem Cells from Human Skin

April 4, 2012

Keio University researchers Wado Akamatsu and Hideyuki Okano have reported a new method that they have used to create neural stem cells from human skin cells and transformed them into nerves in shorter period of time.

The researchers planted four different genes used to create induces pluripotent stem (iPS) cells into human cells. The cells were cultivated for one week and then transferred into a different cultivation medium where it stayed for three days. With a total of about two weeks, the neural cells were developed which used to take half a year in previously used methods. They planted neural stem cells in mice that had damaged spines. After a certain period of time, the mice were able to walk again.

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