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Researchers recently created induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells — cells like embryonic stem cells — from differentiated skin cells, first in mice and then in humans (Journal Watch Nov 29 2007). Theoretically, this development made possible the creation of stem cells that would not be immunologically rejected, by a technique that would not raise ethical objections.
A multi-institutional team used mice that were engineered to be homozygous for the human sickle hemoglobin gene and that develop a disease much like human sickle cell disease. The team converted skin cells from the tail of these mice to iPS cells. Then they inserted the healthy human globin gene into these iPS cells and induced the cells to be hematopoietic progenitor cells.
The t…