Groundbreaking discovery could pave way for use of stem cells in medicine

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&#x27;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&#x27;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 &quot;stress-induced&quot; 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:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;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 &#x27;debate&#x27; on stem cells. If all we need to harvest them is some ordinary cells and acid, then the whole &#x27;embryo&#x27; debate should no longer be an obstacle.

Did I read it correctly -- that they actually transformed blood cells into an entire mouse <i>fetus</i>??

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.

Any reason to believe this is real? It seems slightly impossible, like cold fusion.

yes pls ... turn my skin into knee cartilage.