David Prentice at the Family Research Council is finding more and more publications discussing iPSCs (induced pluripotent stem cells; these are reprogramed adult cells), versus ESCs (embryonic stem cells, or cells taken from human embryos, typically blastocysts, in which the tiny human is destroyed).
More news, and good news, indeed.
Notes Prentice,
iPS cells fulfill the desire to create ES cells, with the added advantage of easy and cheap creation directly from a patient, and the potential for transplant match, but do all of this without the use of embryos, eggs, or cloning. Within one year of the first report of human iPS cells, at least 315 human iPS cell lines had been generated, and over 500 total human iPS cell lines have now been reported. In addition, iPS cell lines from patients suffering from various diseases have been created, covering 13 different diseases.
iPS cells provide all of the desired characteristics of pluripotent ES cells, and also distinct advantages in terms of their ethical creation as well as ease and cost of creation, and production directly from patients.
