Sifting For Stem Cells

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ScienceBlog notes an advance in the technology of identifying and isolating pluripotent adult stem cells. A truly efficient means of doing so would be a big boost to regenerative medicine based on the use of a patient's own stem cells to accelerate healing or replace damaged cells. "There are just 10,000 primitive cells in the average adult's bloodstream. Of those, only 500 might have the potential to replace embryonic stem cells. Stem cell research requires millions of these cells. ... Various properties of these primitive cells have been used to try and isolate the 5% or so with the highest stem cell potential, but no single technology has proved completely successful for human stem cells."

Link: http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/node/7533