Embryonic Stem Cells from Human Skin Cells

Embryonic stem cells (ES cells) are stem cells derived from the inner cell mass of an early stage embryo known as a blastocyst. Human embryos reach the blastocyst stage 4-5 days post fertilization, at which time they consist of 50-150 cells.

But, the new findings from University of California, Los Angeles, has found a new way to get those embrionic stem cells.

UCLA researchers used genetic alteration to turn back the clock on human skin cells and create cells that are nearly identical to human embryonic stem cells, which have the ability to become every cell type found in the human body. Four regulator genes were used to create the cells, called induced pluripotent stem cells or iPS cells.

Human Skin Cells Reprogrammed Into Embryonic Stem Cells


This research is a major step for embryonic stem cell research after a fail to implement this technique from somatic cells nuclear transfer (SCNT) to human.