Turn skin cells into stem cells!


Our scientists can turn skin cells into stem cells.

Don’t call it a miracle. It has no relation with supernatural stuff.
Call it an amazing fact.

Human skin cells have been turned into stem cells which have the potential to develop into fully-formed embryos, simply by bathing them in weak citric acid for half an hour.

I may not get the benefit of it in my lifetime, but I am so bloody excited for being one of the witnesses of such an incredible scientific achievement.

Although there is no intention to create human embryos from skin cells, scientists believe that it could, theoretically, be possible to do so given that entire mouse embryos have already been effectively created from the re-engineered blood cells of laboratory mice.

Creating the mouse embryos was the final proof the scientists needed to demonstrate that the stem cells were “pluripotent”, and so capable of developing into any specialised tissue of an adult animal, including the “germ cells” that make sperm and eggs.

What else do we really need?

A team of Japanese and American scientists converted human skin cells into stem cells using the same simple approach that had astonished scientists around the world last month when they announced that they had converted blood cells of mice into stem cells by bathing them in a weak solution of citric acid for 30 minutes.

The scientist who instigated the research programme more than a decade ago said that he now has overwhelming evidence that the same technique can be used to create embryonic-like stem cells from human skin cells.

We can prevent our degenerations and deaths if we want. Why don’t we try to live as long as we like? I don’t like the idea to stop cloning because some bad people may misuse cloning, and to stop using stem cells because some bad people may use stem cells to live forever.

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