Scientists Discover New Method for Creating Stem Cells

Stem cells are a revolutionary type of cell that have the ability to turn into any type of tissue. Scientists may have discovered a new method for creating them through the use of mouse cells. If it works for human cells, it could help with future organ transplants and cancer research.

The cells taken from a mouse spleen and exposed to an acidic environment were discovered to be "pluripotent," meaning that they are capable of turning into most types of cells in the body, including lung, muscle, bone, blood, skin and nervous system cells. These new cells were named "Stimulus-Triggered Acquisition of Pluripotency Cells, or STAP cells.

Japan first discovered the ability to make stem cells from adult cells back in 2006. By using viruses to insert new genes into adult cells, the researchers produced "induced pluripotent stem cells" or iPSCs. The new method that uses the mouse cells, however, does not require the manipulation of the cell's DNA. It also might be faster.

One goal of stem cell research is to find ways to reset adult cells in order for them to change course and grow into the desired tissue. For cells to revert to their unspecialized state, either the cell nucleus must be transferred or the addition of a complex cocktail of substances that controls how DNA is produced into proteins is needed.

In the mouse cell method, the researchers took spleen cells from one-week-old mice and bathed the cells in acidic fluid for 25 minutes. After the acid treatment, the cells returned to a pluripotent state, as seen in embryonic stem cells. The researchers then tested the cells by injecting them into the mouse embryos, which were at a very early stage of development. Those embryos then developed into healthy mice known as "chimaeras," which are embryos that contain genetic material from STAP cells as well as the original cells. The discovery was further strengthened when the researchers found that the STAP cells could also develop into the cells of the mouse's placenta. This indicated the cells' great potential to develop into different cell types, which is an obvious sign of a breakthrough in stem cell research.

To read more about this stem cell method, visit this Live Science article.