THE prospect of carrying out reconstructive surgery using bone, muscle and fat tissue grown from a patient’s own cells has moved closer to reality. These tissues have now been grown from adult stem cells extracted from human skin.
It was shown three years ago that stem cells taken from the skin of mice can turn into a range of tissue types when injected into mouse embryos (New Scientist, 16 March 2002, p 12). But critics pointed out that, rather than forming normal new tissue, the stem cells might merely be fusing with existing cells, as has been shown to…
