STEM cells from the brain can be transformed into muscle, researchers in
Italy have found. Such cells could provide an inexhaustible supply of material
for treating muscle-wasting disorders such as muscular dystrophy. The
researchers have also found clues to what triggers the stem cells to change.
Angelo Vescovi and his colleagues at the National Neurological Institute in
Milan, Italy, have shown that adult stem cells from mouse brains become muscle
cells when implanted in the muscles of live mice. And when human adult stem
cells extracted from the brains of miscarried fetuses are implanted in mouse
muscle, they too turn…
