THE birth of the first live mice created from mouse skin cells has confirmed the potential of converting pluripotent stem cells (iPS) into all tissues of the body, a property that could prove valuable for people undergoing reconstructive surgery.
Qi Zhou of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and his colleagues started by making iPS cells from mouse skin cells. They then injected the cells into mouse embryos to create “chimeric” embryos, each containing four sets of chromosomes. The embryos were implanted into female mice, resulting in 27 live chimeric pups being born. Many of them were fertile (…
