Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Scientists Isolate First Stage of Tissue Production From Human Embryonic Stem Cells
Scientists at the UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center have described a population of cells that mark the very first stage of differentiation of human embryonic stem cells as they enter a developmental pathway that leads to production of blood, heart muscle, blood vessels and bone.
Researchers hope that these cells could one day be used for clinical treatments of a wide range of medical conditions as the discovery may help scientists create better and safer tissues for use in regenerative medicine. It also will allow scientists to better understand the differences between pluripotent stem cells, which can become every cell in the body, and cells that have lost their pluripotency and are on their way to becoming specific types of tissue cells.
The study appears today in the early online edition of the peer-reviewed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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