Cell Switch Is Step Toward Tissue Repair

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Associated Press
August 28, 2008; Page D3

Scientists transformed one type of cell into another in living mice, a big step toward the goal of growing replacement tissues to treat diseases.

The cell identity switch turned ordinary pancreas cells into the rarer type that churns out insulin, essential for preventing diabetes. The implications of the process go beyond diabetes to a host of possibilities, scientists said. It's the second advance in about a year that suggests doctors might eventually be able to use a patient's own cells to treat disease or injury without turning to stem cells taken from embryos.

The work is "a major leap" in reprogramming cells from one kind to another, said one expert not involved in the research, John Gearhart of the University of Pennsylvania. Because the test was done in living mice rather than a lab dish, the result was achieved without going through a middleman like embryonic stem cells, he said.

The newly created cells made insulin in diabetic mice, though they were not cured. If the experiment's approach proves viable, it might lead to treatments such as growing new heart cells after a heart attack or nerve cells to treat disorders like ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

Douglas Melton, co-director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute and a researcher with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, cautioned that the approach is not ready for humans. He and his colleagues reported the research in a paper published online Wednesday by the journal Nature.