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(Ivanhoe Newswire) – It’s just the beginning steps, but researchers say they have treated mice with human sickle-cell anemia disease successfully. Scientists accomplished this by using a process that reprogrammed the mice’s cells to an embryonic stem cell like state, without the use of eggs. This is the first proof in mice of using directly reprogrammed “induced pluripotent stem” (IPS) cells. 

Sickle cell anemia is a disease of the blood marrow caused by a defect in a gene. The research was done in the lab of Whitehead Member Rudolf Jaenisch in Cambridge, Mass. Investigators started with cells from the skin of the diseased mice and after reprogramming them back into the embryonic stem cell like state, the cells were put back in the mice. The blood was then tested and the analysis showed the disease was corrected.

“This demonstrates that IPS cells have the same potential for therapy as embryonic stem cells, without the ethical and practical issues raised in creating embryonic stem cells,” says lead study author Rudolph Jaenisch.

However, researchers caution that one challenge they must overcome is how to deliver the IPS cells to the body. Currently, there is no delivery system for humans.

SOURCE: Published online in Science Express on Dec. 6, 2007

This entry was posted on Monday, December 10th, 2007 at 1:12 pm and is filed under Blood / Hematology, Medical News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.