I am a bioinformatician working on regeneration. Two interesting observations here aside from the primary observation that stem cells can be made from stress:<p>- This only worked with differentiated cells from newly born animals. It didn't work with adults. They should investigate further to see what kind of epigenetic changes occurred throughout the lifetime of the animal to inhibit this stress response. This reminds me a bit of the aneurogenic limb experiments in salamanders. Is this a difference between development and regeneration?<p>- The stem cells can make placental tissue. How did they determine this? Are they suggesting these cells are essentially totipotent?
In many ways what's most interesting about this from a biological standpoint is that it explains why stem cells have been found all over the body in previous experiments. This "stress-induced" pluripotency suggests a general mechanism that the body uses to deal with stress. In effect cells are made with the intrinsic capability to respond to injury, by simply turning into stem cells.
Offtopic: Just curious why this submission is beating out mine: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7143500" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7143500</a><p>Is BBC frowned on, maybe?
Not only is this groundbreaking with respect to the potential ease of harvesting stem cells, it could also likely change the 'debate' on stem cells. If all we need to harvest them is some ordinary cells and acid, then the whole 'embryo' debate should no longer be an obstacle.
Apparently the scientist responsible for this discovery is a 30 year old Japanese woman that struggled for 5 years to convince her colleagues that she could be right.<p>She was told more than once that what she was proposing was wrong and that she should give up.<p>A young Japanese woman going against the status quo in Japan for 5 years is a very hard thing to do.<p>I congratulate her courage - I might benefit from it one day.