A team led by researchers has discovered that a group of cells located in the skin and other areas of the body, called neural crest stem cells, are the source of reprogrammed neurons found by other researchers.
Their findings refute the popular theory in cellular reprogramming that any developed cell can be induced to switch its identity to a completely unrelated cell type through the infusion of transcription factors.
"We believed that most cases of cell reprogramming could be attributed to a rare, multi-potential stem cell that is found throughout the body and lays dormant within populations of mature cells," said Justin Belair-Hickey, first author on the study and graduate student of U of T's Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research."It was not fully understood why reprogramming tends to be an inefficient process.
Neural crest stem cells are found throughout the body, including in skin, bone and connective tissue. Their distribution throughout the body, ability to be reprogrammed into many types of cells and accessibility within the skin for collection makes them a high-potential candidate for stem cell transplantation to treat disease.
Skin Cancer Lymphoma Nervous System Developmental Biology Biotechnology Biotechnology And Bioengineering Molecular Biology
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