Stem Cells from Adult Human Skin

Researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine have successfully isolated stem cells from human skin, expanded them in the laboratory and coaxed them into becoming fat, muscle and bone cells. [article]

via Biology News

“Compared to bone marrow, a skin biopsy is easy to take, so it offers advantages for clinical use,� said Shay Soker, Ph.D., associate professor of surgery at Wake Forest’s School of Medicine. “The cells can be obtained from any small sample of human skin.�

“Because these cells are taken from a patient’s own skin, there would not be problems with organ or tissue rejection. . . The ability to engineer tissues from a patient’s own cells may overcome two major problems in transplantation medicine: immune rejection and tissue shortage,� said Anthony Atala, M.D., director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine and senior researcher on the project.