Towards Control of Cells, Step by Step
The Daily Yomiuri reports on one more step forward of many: "A team of doctors has succeeded in creating a hepatic cell out of subcutaneous fat, a development that might lead to a regenerative medicine technique that would enable patients with hepatitis or cirrhosis to have their livers repaired. ... the doctors used a cell called mesenchymal stem cell that accounts for about 10 percent of the subcutaneous fat tissue of a human body ... The researchers added three types of proteins that prompt growth to the stem cells, and incubated them for about 40 days. As a result, nearly all cells turned into hepatic cells ... At least 14 types of proteins, including albumin - one of the major components of blood - and drug-metabolizing enzyme, that are known to be synthesized only in the human liver, were detected in the incubated cells ... the researchers injected about 1 million incubated cells into lab mice that were artificially made to develop liver malfunctions. The ammonia level in the mice, which had been rising before injection, dropped to a normal level in one day." Twenty years from now, we'll take it for granted that doctors can treat us with our own cells, transformed to order to suit the particular need.
Link: http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/science/20070107TDY01003.htm