ADULT mouse cells have been “reprogrammed” back to an embryonic state without the introduction of cancer-causing genes. The feat raises hopes that induced pluripotent stem cells, which can potentially be turned into almost any cell type, will one day be transplantable in people.
Previously, iPS cells have been made using retroviruses carrying four genes that erase the developmental history of an adult cell. However, the method is not safe because retroviruses also add extra copies of potentially cancer-causing genes to the chromosomes of the cells they infect. So a team led by Konrad Hochedlinger of the Massachusetts General…
