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Posted

Stem Cell Breakthrough Uses No Embryos

Published: 11/20/07, 2:45 PM EDT

By MALCOLM RITTER

NEW YORK (AP) - Scientists have made ordinary human skin cells take on the chameleon-like powers of embryonic stem cells, a startling breakthrough that might someday deliver the medical payoffs of embryo cloning without the controversy.

Laboratory teams on two continents report success in a pair of landmark papers released Tuesday. It's a neck-and-neck finish to a race that made headlines five months ago, when scientists announced that the feat had been accomplished in mice.

The "direct reprogramming" technique avoids the swarm of ethical, political and practical obstacles that have stymied attempts to produce human stem cells by cloning embryos.

Scientists familiar with the work said scientific questions remain and that it's still important to pursue the cloning strategy, but that the new work is a major coup.

"This work represents a tremendous scientific milestone - the biological equivalent of the Wright Brothers' first airplane," said Dr. Robert Lanza, chief science officer of Advanced Cell Technology, which has been trying to extract stem cells from cloned human embryos.

"It's a bit like learning how to turn lead into gold," said Lanza, while cautioning that the work is far from providing medical payoffs.

"It's a huge deal," agreed Rudolf Jaenisch, a prominent stem cell scientist at the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge, Mass. "You have the proof of principle that you can do it."

The White House lauded the papers, saying such research is what President Bush was advocating when he twice vetoed legislation to pave the way for taxpayer-funded embryo research.

There is a catch with the new technique. At this point, it requires disrupting the DNA of the skin cells, which creates the potential for developing cancer. So it would be unacceptable for the most touted use of embryonic cells: creating transplant tissue that in theory could be used to treat diseases like diabetes, Parkinson's, and spinal cord injury.

But the DNA disruption is just a byproduct of the technique, and experts said they believe it can be avoided.

The new work is being published online by two journals, Cell and Science. The Cell paper is from a team led by Dr. Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University; the Science paper is from a team led by Junying Yu, working in the lab of in stem-cell pioneer James Thomson of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Both reported creating cells that behaved like stem cells in a series of lab tests.

Thomson, 48, made headlines in 1998 when he announced that his team had isolated human embryonic stem cells.

Yamanaka gained scientific notice in 2006 by reporting that direct reprogramming in mice had produced cells resembling embryonic stem cells, although with significant differences. In June, his group and two others announced they'd created mouse cells that were virtually indistinguishable from stem cells.

For the new work, the two men chose different cell types from a tissue supplier. Yamanaka reprogrammed skin cells from the face of an unidentified 36-year-old woman, and Thomson's team worked with foreskin cells from a newborn. Thomson, who was working his way from embryonic to fetal to adult cells, said he's still analyzing his results with adult cells.

Both labs did basically the same thing. Each used viruses to ferry four genes into the skin cells. These particular genes were known to turn other genes on and off, but just how they produced cells that mimic embryonic stem cells is a mystery.

"People didn't know it would be this easy," Thomson said. "Thousands of labs in the United States can do this, basically tomorrow."

The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, which holds three patents for Thomson's work, is applying for patents involving his new research, a spokeswoman said. Two of the four genes he used were different from Yamanaka's recipe.

Scientists prize embryonic stem cells because they can turn into virtually any kind of cell in the body. The cloning approach - which has worked so far only in mice and monkeys - should be able to produce stem cells that genetically match the person who donates body cells for cloning.

That means tissue made from the cells should be transplantable into that person without fear of rejection. Scientists emphasize that any such payoff would be well in the future, and that the more immediate medical benefits would come from basic research in the lab.

In fact, many scientists say the cloning technique has proven too expensive and cumbersome in its current form to produce stem cells routinely for transplants.

The new work shows that the direct reprogramming technique can also produce versatile cells that are genetically matched to a person. But it avoids several problems that have bedeviled the cloning approach.

For one thing, it doesn't require a supply of unfertilized human eggs, which are hard to obtain for research and subjects the women donating them to a surgical procedure. Using eggs also raises the ethical questions of whether women should be paid for them.

In cloning, those eggs are used to make embryos from which stem cells are harvested. But that destroys the embryos, which has led to political opposition from President Bush, the Roman Catholic church and others.

Those were "show-stopping ethical problems," said Laurie Zoloth, director of Northwestern University's Center for Bioethics, Science and Society.

The new work, she said, "redefines the ethical terrain."

Richard Doerflinger of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops called the new work "a very significant breakthrough in finding morally unproblematic alternatives to cloning. ... I think this is something that would be readily acceptable to Catholics."

White House spokesman Tony Fratto said the new method does not cross what Bush considers an "ethical line." And Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, a staunch opponent of publicly funded embryonic stem cell research, said it should nullify the debate.

Another advantage of direct reprogramming is that it would qualify for federal research funding, unlike projects that seek to extract stem cells from human embryos, noted Doug Melton, co-director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute.

Still, scientific questions remain about the cells produced by direct reprogramming, called "iPS" cells. One is how the cells compare to embryonic stem cells in their behavior and potential. Yamanaka said his work detected differences in gene activity.

If they're different, iPS cells might prove better for some scientific uses and cloned stem cells preferable for other uses. Scientists want to study the roots of genetic disease and screen potential drug treatments in their laboratories, for example.

Scottish researcher Ian Wilmut, famous for his role in cloning Dolly the sheep a decade ago, told London's Daily Telegraph that he is giving up the cloning approach to produce stem cells and plans to pursue direct reprogramming instead.

Other scientists said it's too early for the field to follow Wilmut's lead. Cloning embryos to produce stem cells remains too valuable as a research tool, Jaenisch said.

Dr. George Daley of the Harvard institute, who said his own lab has also achieved direct reprogramming of human cells, said it's not clear how long it will take to get around the cancer risk problem. Nor is it clear just how direct reprogramming works, or whether that approach mimics what happens in cloning, he noted.

So the cloning approach still has much to offer, he said.

Daley, who's president of the International Society for Stem Cell Research, said his lab is pursuing both strategies.

"We'll see, ultimately, which one works and which one is more practical."

___

Associated Press writer Laurie Kellman contributed to this report from Washington.

___

On the Net:

Journal Cell: http://www.cell.com

Journal Science: http://www.sciencemag.org

  • 3 weeks later...
Posted

Humans have 46 chromosomes: 23 come from the mother (egg); 23 from the father (sperm). An egg without a sperm has only 23 chromosomes; it must be "fertilized" by the sperm to be endowed with all the genetic information (carried on the DNA of the 46 chromosomes) required for life.

All cells in the body are derived from this one fertilized egg. All the cells have the same chromosomes; the same DNA. What makes cells different is that different parts of the DNA are active in different cells. This activity is controlled by the activity of proteins and RNA (two things which are derived from the information carried by DNA).

The fertilized egg is a stem cell, but it's not the only stem cell. The fertilized egg divides into two cells and then four cells and then 8 cells. A stem cell can give rise to all of the tissues and organs necessary to make a human being. At a certain point, however, the stem cell becomes a "committed" cell. It can no longer make a human being. It can only make a certain type of tissue.

The "first generation" embryonic stem cell method of making a stem cell is to take an egg from a woman and fertilize the egg with donor sperm (actually a bunch of eggs, as excess embryos are typically created in in vitro fertilization clinics at the same time; the excess eggs/embryos are stored in liquid nitrogen for possible latter use). The fertilized egg is allowed to divide several times in cell culture, resulting in a little ball of typically 4 - 16 stem cells; in effect, the earliest embryo.

But stem cells are now able to be created using a "second generation" embryonic stem cell technology. Take an adult skin cell; introduce a small number of genes which direct the "committed" adult skin cell to revert all the way back to an embryonic stem cell; potentially capable of not only being used for stem cell research, but potentially capable of developing into a human baby, given the proper growth conditions.

This "second generation" embryonic stem cell would have the same genetic material and the same capabilities as a "first generation" stem cell. It would be the same cell as it was at the time it was a newly fertilized egg. It would genetically be an identical twin; a clone of the original fertilized egg, in every sense of the word.

But the cells are the same. In one case, the cells are created by going forward (fertilizing an egg). In the other case, the cells are created by going backwards (introducing a handful of gene to reprogram the DNA of an adult cell, so that the cell reverts back to the state of a newly fertilized egg). But the cells potentially are the same, with the same potential for developing into a baby.

In point of fact, it may well be that the first cloned human baby will come from this "second generation" technology and not from the "first generation" technology which everyone worries about. By officially sanctioning research into this "second generation" technology, the critics of embryonic stem cell research may actually be lending their support to a technology which has the greater potential for being used for a purpose they condemn (the cloning of a human).

Well, here it is!

http://stemcells.alphamedpress.org/cgi/ ... 0252v1.pdf

  • 1 month later...
Posted

Jan 17, 9:06 AM (ET)

By MALCOLM RITTER

NEW YORK (AP) - Scientists say they have produced embryos that are clones of two men, a potential step toward developing scientifically valuable stem cells.

It's the first documented demonstration that ordinary cells from an adult human can be used to make cloned embryos mature enough to produce stem cells, the researchers said. But because they haven't produced those stem cells yet, experts reacted coolly.

Since other scientists had previously made a cloned human embryo, "I found it difficult to determine what was substantially new," said Doug Melton of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute.

He said the "next big advance will be to create a human embryonic stem cell line" from cloned embryos. "This has yet to be achieved," Melton said.

Korean scientist Hwang Woo-suk claimed a few years ago that he'd created such cell lines, but that turned out to be a fraud.

Dr. Samuel Wood, a co-author of the new paper and chief executive of Stemagen Corp. of La Jolla, Calif., said he and his colleagues are now attempting to produce stem cell lines from the embryos.

The work was published online Thursday by the journal Stem Cells.

Scientists say stem cells from cloned embryos could provide a valuable tool for studying diseases, screening drugs and, perhaps someday, creating transplant material to treat conditions like diabetes and Parkinson's disease.

But critics raise objections. Some say the procedure amounts to creating a human life in a lab and then destroying it to harvest the stem cells. Others raise concerns about health risks and exploitation if large numbers of women are asked to provide eggs for widespread cloning.

Those objections are one reason that an alternative route to stem cells made headlines last November. Scientists reported a relatively simple way to turn skin cells directly into stem cells. This direct reprogramming carries a theoretical risk of cancer for the recipients of tissue from these cells, however, and many scientists have urged that work continue on the cloning technique as well.

The cloning approach involves inserting DNA from a person into an egg, and then growing the egg into an embryo about five days old before extracting the stem cells. At that stage, the embryo is a sphere of about 150 cells.

In the new work, researchers took skin cells from Wood and another volunteer and produced three embryos with DNA matching the men's. Further DNA testing on one of these embryos strengthened the case that it was a clone, researchers said.

---

On the Net:

Journal Stem Cells: http://stemcells.alphamedpress.org

Information on stem cells: http://stemcells.nih.gov/

  • 4 weeks later...
Posted

UCLA stem cell scientists have reprogrammed human skin cells into cells with the same unlimited properties as embryonic stem cells without using embryos or eggs.

Led by scientists Kathrin Plath and William Lowry, 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.

The UCLA study confirms the work first reported in late November of researcher Shinya Yamanaka at Kyoto University and James Thompson at the University of Wisconsin. The UCLA research appeared Feb. 11, 2008, in an early online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences.

The implications for disease treatment could be significant. Reprogramming adult stem cells into embryonic stem cells could generate a potentially limitless source of immune-compatible cells for tissue engineering and transplantation medicine. A patient's skin cells, for example, could be reprogrammed into embryonic stem cells. Those embryonic stem cells could then be prodded into becoming various cells types - beta islet cells to treat diabetes, hematopoetic cells to create a new blood supply for a leukemia patient, motor neuron cells to treat Parkinson's disease.

"Our reprogrammed human skin cells were virtually indistinguishable from human embryonic stem cells," said Plath, an assistant professor of biological chemistry, a researcher with the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research and lead author of the study. "Our findings are an important step towards manipulating differentiated human cells to generate an unlimited supply of patient specific pluripotent stem cells. We are very excited about the potential implications."

The UCLA work was completed at about the same time the Yamanaka and Thomson reports were published. Taken together, the studies demonstrate that human iPS cells can be easily created by different laboratories and are likely to mark a milestone in stem cell-based regenerative medicine, Plath said.

These new techniques to develop stem cells could potentially replace a controversial method used to reprogram cells, somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), sometimes referred to as therapeutic cloning. To date, therapeutic cloning has not been successful in humans. However, top stem cell scientists worldwide stress that further research comparing these reprogrammed cells with stem cells derived from embryos, considered the gold standard, is necessary. Additionally, many technical problems, such as the use of viruses to deliver the four genes for reprogramming, need to be overcome to produce safe iPS cells that can be used in the clinic.

"Reprogramming normal human cells into cells with identical properties to those in embryonic stem cells without SCNT may have important therapeutic ramifications and provide us with another valuable method to develop human stem cell lines," said Lowry, an assistant professor of molecular, cell and developmental biology, a Broad Stem Cell Center researcher and first author of the study. "It is important to remember that our research does not eliminate the need for embryo-based human embryonic stem cell research, but rather provides another avenue of worthwhile investigation."

The combination of four genes used to reprogram the skin cells regulate expression of downstream genes and either activate or silence their expression. The reprogrammed cells were not just functionally identical to embryonic stem cells. They also had identical biological structure, expressed the same genes and could be coaxed into giving rise to the same cell types as human embryonic stem cells.

The UCLA research team included four young scientists recruited to UCLA's new stem cell center in the wake of the passage of Proposition 71 in 2004, which created $3 billion in funding for embryonic stem cell research. The scientists were drawn to UCLA in part because of California's stem cell research friendly atmosphere and the funding opportunities created by Proposition 71. In addition to Plath and Lowry, the team included Amander Clarke, an assistant professor of molecular, cell and developmental biology, and April Pyle, an assistant professor of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics.

The creation of the human iPS cells is an extension of Plath's work on mouse stem cell reprogramming. Plath headed up one of three research teams that were able to successfully reprogram mouse skin cells into mouse embryonic stem cells. That work appeared in the inaugural June 2007 issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell.

The stem cell center was launched in 2005 with a UCLA commitment of $20 million over five years. A $20 million gift from the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation in 2007 resulted in the renaming of the center. With more than 150 members, the Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research is committed to a multi-disciplinary, integrated collaboration of scientific, academic and medical disciplines for the purpose of understanding adult and human embryonic stem cells. The institute supports innovation, excellence and the highest ethical standards focused on stem cell research with the intent of facilitating basic scientific inquiry directed towards future clinical applications to treat disease. The center is a collaboration of the David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science and the UCLA College of Letters and Science. To learn more about the center, visit http://www.stemcell.ucla.edu/.

Source: Kim Irwin

University of California - Los Angeles

Posted

Our hope is in adult Stem cells which can be donated in umbilical cords.

Thursday, September 21, 2006

Politically Incorrect fact of the day, #1: Stem cells.

Stem cells work. They are used to cure actual diseases RIGHT THIS MOMENT. I mean that, literally. In a May 2005 article in Citizen Magazine, you can see the list of things that stem cells cure. It cures cirrhosis of the liver, paralysis, inernal organs, luekemia. Two women, years before Christopher Reeve died, were cured using stem cells...

However, it only works with adult stem cells. Embryonic stem cells only help embryos turn into children. Embryonic stem cell research only helps people who'd like to see fewer children in the world.

adult STEMS CELLS Repairs spinal cord injuries with nasal and sinus stem cells-- in fully formed adult.

They reverse type 1 diabetes (at the moment, just in mice) with adult spleen cells. I'd like the FDA to approve THAT before my father dies from diabetes. (You hear me, FDA?)

Crohn's disease, a rather nasty virus, can be put into remission with the patient's own blood stem cells. Lupus can be put into remission in a similar fashion.

Umbilical cord blood, from a fully developed and BORN child, treats sickle cell anemia and puts leukemia into remission.

Stem cells from adult bone marrow can repair heart muscles in cases of congestive heart failure. Skeletal muscle cells restore weak heart muscles. Bone marrow cells heal bone fractures.

Ocular SURFACE cells [ie] restores sight to the blind. Even stems cells using muscles from the armpit heal urinary incontinence.

Diseases cured by adult stem cells: 80 and counting.

People cured by embronic stem cells: zero, and counting.

People killed by the embryonic stem cell research, 1.3 million children aborted per year since Roe. Vs. Wade. And counting.

And now you know why embronic stem cells require federal funding: if it were a real cure, a true solution to anything, it would be funded by every medical research company on the planet. As it is, governments are the only people stupid enough to even consider it.

Posted

Skin Cells used with success.

14-February-2008 --

UCLA Researchers Confirm New Stem Cell Breakthrough

Los Angeles, Feb 14, 2008 (CNA).- U.S. scientists have reprogrammed human skin cells into cells with characteristics similar to those of embryonic stem cells, confirming the breakthrough discovery made by a Japanese researcher, according to news reports.

Stem cells are considered to have significant potential for medical treatments including tissue regrowth and transplants. While some stem cells can be extracted from adult tissue, others are produced through the controversial process of cloning human embryos and destroying them to harvest their cells. Embryonic stem cells have the ability to become every cell type found in the human body.

Scientists at the University of California at Los Angeles genetically altered human skin cells using four regulator genes, publishing their findings in the February 11 edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences.

Their process produced what are called induced pluripotent cells, or IPS cells, that are almost identical to human embryonic stem cells in function and biological structure.

The lead author of the study was Kathrin Plath, an assistant professor of biological chemistry and a researcher with the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research. She described the research in a prepared statement.

"Our reprogrammed human skin cells were virtually indistinguishable from human embryonic stem cells," she said. "Our findings are an important step towards manipulating differentiated human cells to generate an unlimited supply of patient specific pluripotent stem cells. We are very excited about the potential implications."

The UCLA research confirms the similar work of researchers Shinya Yamakana at Kyoto University and James Thomson at the University of Wisconsin. Plath said the studies demonstrate human IPS cells can be easily created by different laboratories and could mark a milestone in stem cell-based regenerative medicine.

The new technique could replace a stem cell harvesting method called somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), sometimes called therapeutic cloning. At present, therapeutic cloning has not been successful in humans.

The first study author William Lowry, assistant professor of molecular, cell, and developmental biology, also addressed the findings in a statement.

"Reprogramming normal human cells into cells with identical properties to those in embryonic stem cells without SCNT may have important therapeutic ramifications and provide us with another valuable method to develop human stem cell lines," he said.

Like other prominent stem cell researchers, Lowry claimed that embryonic stem cell research was still necessary.

"It is important to remember that our research does not eliminate the need for embryo-based human embryonic stem cell research, but rather provides another avenue of worthwhile investigation," he said.

.

Posted

Skin Cells used with success.

14-February-2008 --

UCLA Researchers Confirm New Stem Cell Breakthrough

Los Angeles, Feb 14, 2008 (CNA).- U.S. scientists have reprogrammed human skin cells into cells with characteristics similar to those of embryonic stem cells, confirming the breakthrough discovery made by a Japanese researcher, according to news reports.

Stem cells are considered to have significant potential for medical treatments including tissue regrowth and transplants. While some stem cells can be extracted from adult tissue, others are produced through the controversial process of cloning human embryos and destroying them to harvest their cells. Embryonic stem cells have the ability to become every cell type found in the human body.

Scientists at the University of California at Los Angeles genetically altered human skin cells using four regulator genes, publishing their findings in the February 11 edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences.

Their process produced what are called induced pluripotent cells, or IPS cells, that are almost identical to human embryonic stem cells in function and biological structure.

The lead author of the study was Kathrin Plath, an assistant professor of biological chemistry and a researcher with the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research. She described the research in a prepared statement.

"Our reprogrammed human skin cells were virtually indistinguishable from human embryonic stem cells," she said. "Our findings are an important step towards manipulating differentiated human cells to generate an unlimited supply of patient specific pluripotent stem cells. We are very excited about the potential implications."

The UCLA research confirms the similar work of researchers Shinya Yamakana at Kyoto University and James Thomson at the University of Wisconsin. Plath said the studies demonstrate human IPS cells can be easily created by different laboratories and could mark a milestone in stem cell-based regenerative medicine.

The new technique could replace a stem cell harvesting method called somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), sometimes called therapeutic cloning. At present, therapeutic cloning has not been successful in humans.

The first study author William Lowry, assistant professor of molecular, cell, and developmental biology, also addressed the findings in a statement.

"Reprogramming normal human cells into cells with identical properties to those in embryonic stem cells without SCNT may have important therapeutic ramifications and provide us with another valuable method to develop human stem cell lines," he said.

Like other prominent stem cell researchers, Lowry claimed that embryonic stem cell research was still necessary.

"It is important to remember that our research does not eliminate the need for embryo-based human embryonic stem cell research, but rather provides another avenue of worthwhile investigation," he said.

Posted

A Functional Immune System Can Be Derived From Embryonic Stem Cells, Preliminary Study Finds

A new study demonstrates for the first time that embryonic stem cells can be used to create functional immune system blood cells, a finding which is an important step in the utilization of embryonic stem cells as an alternative source of cells for bone marrow transplantation. This hopeful news for patients with severe blood and immune disorders, who need these transplants for treatment, was prepublished online in Blood, the official journal of the American Society of Hematology.

Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) are being intensely investigated as a renewable source of primitive cells theoretically able to regenerate all tissues and organs. The use of ESC-derived blood-forming cells may have an important advantage over traditional transplants that use bone marrow, umbilical cord blood, and peripheral blood from donors. The antigens on the surface of donated cells must be compatible (determined by a method called HLA matching) with those of the patient to prevent rejection. The use of embryonic stem cells, which have low levels of these antigens and may therefore be less likely to provoke a defensive reaction by the patient's body, may allow patients who can't find suitable HLA-matched donors to receive transplants.

Previous studies have shown that mouse ESCs can be coaxed to form blood-forming hematopoietic cells by introducing a protein called HOXB4, known for its unique ability to greatly enhance cell proliferation, into them. These cells could then be transplanted into mice whose own marrow had been destroyed by radiation, rescuing their marrow function and beginning to produce necessary blood cells. However, previous studies have not investigated whether ESC-derived bone marrow in these mice could regenerate normal immune function -- in particular, if they could allow the mice to respond to viruses or vaccines. Because fetuses have no need for a functional immune system as they are protected from the environment while in the womb, it was unclear if ESC-derived marrow would recreate an immune system at all or just very slowly.

In this study, a team of scientists from Iowa, Taiwan, and Germany used HOXB4-containing ESCs to engraft the bone marrow and rescue mice that genetically lacked any immune system and had been irradiated to destroy their bone marrow. Only cells containing HOXB4 were able to engraft, rescue the mice, and produce blood cells long term. These engrafted cells were shown to be derived from the transplanted ESC-derived cells.

To determine if these transplants were able to rebuild the defunct immune system, the scientists injected the mice with LCMV, a common rodent virus, and watched for T-cell activity, a sign that the body was defending itself against the infection. Although the number of T cells generated by the new hematopoietic cells was low, they were able to respond effectively to the virus. In addition, the transplanted hematopoietic cells were also able to produce B cells and other defensive cells called antigen-presenting cells, which have a role in signaling T cells to action. They also tested the ability of the mice to respond to vaccination and demonstrated the induction of specific immune cells. Although the level of immune response was not what is seen in normal adult mice after exposure to the virus or vaccine, it was measurable and effective.

The study was also encouraging in that none of the 70 transplanted mice followed for more than 200 days developed any tumors -- another concern when using ESCs for tissue regeneration.

"These results show, for the first time, that functional white blood cells, the key players in the body's immune system, can be successfully derived from embryonic stem cells expressing HOXB4," said lead study author Nicholas Zavazava, MD, PhD, Professor of Internal Medicine and Director of Transplant Research at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City and Staff Physician at the Iowa City VA Medical Center. "Therefore, we're hopeful that these exciting findings are the first step toward new, improved therapies for patients."

This study was supported by grant RO1 HL073015 (NIH/NHLBI), a VA Merit Review, and a grant from the Roche Organ Transplantation Research Foundation (ROTRF).

http://bloodjournal.hematologylibrary.org/

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