UNIVERSAL stem cells that can turn into any body tissue have been extracted
from the bone marrow of mice. “It’s the final nail in the coffin of the idea
that cells are irreversibly fated,” says Neil Theise of New York University
School of Medicine and a co-leader of the study.
Theise and his colleagues discovered the versatile stem cells after
transplanting purified bone marrow cells from male mice into female mice. Cells
from male donors were found in organs such as the lungs, liver, skin and gut
(Cell, vol 105, p 369).
Other researchers are sceptical. “It must go…
