Mice Skin Cells Transformed Into Brain Cells
Nerve Fibers And Their Protectors Oligodendrocytes (in green) trying to cover nerve fibers (in red) Varsha Shukla, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human DevelopmentTwo new studies take a step toward a therapy for multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy and other diseases of the myelin. In what one researcher called "cellular alchemy," two different teams of scientists have reported transforming mouse and rat skin cells into brain cells of the type that's destroyed during multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy and certain other disorders. "We are taking a readily accessible and abundant cell and completely switching its identity to become a highly valuable cell for therapy," Paul Tesar, a geneticist at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, said in a press release. "It's cellular alchemy." The type of cell that the researchers made is a young, immature version of an oligodendrocyte. Oligodendrocytes normally wrap the nerve fibers of the brain and spinal...