Reprogrammed cells generate blood vessels
Researchers at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have used vascular precursor cells derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to generate, in an animal model, functional blood vessels that lasted as long as nine months. In their report published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) Early Edition , the investigators describe using iPSCs — reprogrammed adult cells that have many of the characteristics of embryonic stem cells — both from healthy adults and from individuals with type 1 diabetes to generate blood vessels on the outer surface of the brain or under the skin of mice. “The discovery of ways to bring mature cells back to a ‘stemlike’ state that can differentiate into many different types of tissue has brought enormous potential to the field of cell-based regenerative medicine, but the challenge of deriving functional cells from these iPSCs still remains,” says Rakesh Jain, Andrew Werk Cook Professor...