Study also calms concerns about genetic instability of iPS
cells
Stanford University School of Medicine scientists have
demonstrated, in a study conducted jointly with researchers at Yale University,
that induced-pluripotent stem cells — the embryonic-stem-cell lookalikes whose
discovery a few years ago won this year’s Nobel Prize in medicine — are not as
genetically unstable as was thought.
The new study, published online Nov. 18 in Nature, showed
that what seemed to be changes in iPS cells’ genetic makeup — presumed to be
inflicted either in the course of their generation from adult cells or during
their propagation and maintenance in laboratory culture dishes — instead are
often accurate reflections of existing but previously undetected genetic
variations among the cells comprising our bodies.