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Scripps Reports Breakthrough With Skin Cells

Scientists with The Scripps Research Institute of La Jolla have reported breeding live mice using skin cells, progress that could one day lead to using a patient’s own cells to grow replacement organs.

The finding, published Aug. 2 in the online edition of the scientific journal Nature, follows similar breakthroughs by two Chinese groups. Each of the groups used mouse skin cells and a process that uses a virus to insert genes encoding for four proteins into the cells’ DNA, essentially shifting the cells backward through the development process into an embryonic-like state. The so-called induced pluripotent cells appear to avoid any ethical controversies associated with embryonic stem cells, which require destruction of days-old embryos.

Embryonic stem cells are considered a kind of gold standard in research because the cells have the ability to transform into the body’s more than 200 cell types.

The group of Scripps researchers, led by assistant professor Kristin Baldwin, used a similar method as the Chinese researchers but reported what it considered to be greater success.

The team’s best cell line produced live pups 13 percent of the time, compared with a 3.5 percent and 1 percent success rate reported by the Chinese teams.

The Scripps team said it generated live mice in four of 15 cell lines generated in one experiment, compared with success rates of three in 37 and one in five for the Chinese teams.

“We can’t say for sure yet, but it is possible that we may have identified a protocol more likely to produce mice that survive until birth than current methods in the field,” Baldwin said.

, Heather Chambers

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