Cells Reprogrammed In Living Mice

sciencehabit writes "Researchers have discovered a surprisingly effective way to 'reprogram' mature mouse cells into an embryolike state, able to become any of the body's cell types (abstract). Their recipe: Let the transformation happen in a living animal instead of a petri dish. The finding could help scientists better understand how reprogramming works and it may one day help breed replacement tissues or organs in the lab—or in living patients."

Reprogramming Mice

[rossdee]

Is this a Logitech advertisement?

Re:

[krashnburn200]

Wow kudos for the effort. You are the most prolific whiny bitch I have seen all week.

Now this is great news

[houbou]

Morphing cells, so, this can have the amazing implication of fixing pretty much anything, if not enhancing and/or even modifying your cells.. Can this help with aging?

Re:

[Lohrno]

I'm not a scientist, so my comment here is possibly worthless - but.. If they could reprogram them to be fresh stem cells - yes probably.

Re:

[Flere Imsaho]

In my (mostly) uninformed opinion, it depends if the cells telomeres are extended, and I doubt they would be. This could conceivably be used to regrow organs, but they would have the same genetic "age" as the original cells.

Re:

[houbou]

Still, if the age and quality are not one and the same being that an old organ would behave as a new one..

Re:

[Flere Imsaho]

True. You'd basically get an organ comprised of new, fresh cells, even if they have the same genetic age as the original organ. But if you continued replacing organs in this manner, eventually short telomeres would start intruducing errors.

I did a bit more reading, and telomerase is active in stem cells, so potentially you could change cells to stem cells and then make them differentiate into normal cells again? TFA does state they can reprogram to any cell type.

Re:

[i kan reed]

We'll just reprogram the tumors to be extra testicles. Even in women. Problem solved.

Re:

[drkim]

We'll just reprogram the tumors to be extra testicles. Even in women. Problem solved.

Yeah, "Problem solved" 'til you get your hand up her dress and..... "uh oh!"

Turn your excess bodyfat into brain cells dept

[sobolwolf]

For anyone that didn't read the slogan.... Soulskill has definitely out done himself today! Kudos!

Now we can create

[geekoid]

personal save points and roll back as needed!

Re:

[game kid]

As if Linus needs another reminder about the SSD.

Re:

[geekoid]

ha!

Old man dying on bed
Dr. "What do you mean you never bothered to back up? Every always needs to back up!"
Camera Zooms in on old man... It's Linus.

Re:

[compro01]

Only wimps use backups: real men just upload their important stuff on ftp, and let the rest of the world mirror it.

Re:

[You're All Wrong]

And after he dies, several thousand people make a claim to his estate...

Regeneration

[vigmeister]

Could be messy, but ultimately, would a 'rolling regeneration' of our organs conveniently sidestep cellular senescence? Can you hear me now?

The end of the fitness industry

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

If they can figure out how to reprogram fat cells to be muscle cells, we can eat McD's for an entire month end up looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger.

a stepping stone to..

[houbou]

true regeneration. It's that simple. If you can literally reprogram your cells, then you can use this for maintenance and/or repairs. Certainly this can mean cutting to the quick when it comes to issues such as aging. This is literally a gold mine. If such knowledge can become applied in a practical way, this can become real preventive medicine. It would have the ability to halt aging. It would also have the ability to regenerate any part of us we have, thus eliminate the need for organ donors. As long as the human brain is well, this could more than likely make us rethink our entire way we deal with medicine. This can become a big deal.

Re:

[abies]

Unfortunately, this will not help against cancer, which is quite common cause of death these days. And I have a feeling that getting stem cells running crazy in your body is going to produce whole new set of cancer possibilities.

Reminds me of radical regeneratives from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Planet_Called_Treason [wikipedia.org]