In 2006, Japanese researchers reported a technique for creating cells that have the embryonic ability to turn into almost any cell type in the mammalian body — the now-famous induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. In papers published this week in Nature, another Japanese team says that it has come up with a surprisingly simple method — exposure to stress, including a low pH — that can make cells that are even more malleable than iPS cells, and do it faster and more efficiently.
“It’s amazing. I would have never thought external stress could have this effect,” says Yoshiki Sasai, a stem-cell researcher at the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology in Kobe, Japan, and a co-author of the latest studies.
Read the full, original story: Acid bath offers easy path to stem cells
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Additional Resources:
- Stem cell timeline: The history of a medical sensation, New Scientist
- A Little Acid Turns Mouse Blood Into Brain, Heart And Stem Cells, NPR
- Groundbreaking: Embryonic Stem Cells Made With Acid, Discovery
