Few lines of research are able to arouse so much hope as the nascent
regenerative medicine, the idea of building tissues, organs or parts to treat
currently incurable diseases.
The central tool of this new discipline are stem cells, immature cells
that have the ability to become, or differentiate, in all types of adult tissue
of the body, from brain neurons to pancreatic islets through everything else,
and whose genome can be obtained from the patient so that the transplantable
material is genetically identical to it and does not cause immune rejection.
The discovery of a new type of stem cells by Shinya Yamanaka, last Nobel
Prize in Medicine, is placing Japan as the emerging leader of the discipline.
IPS stem cells or induced pluripotent, are obtained simply by delaying the
clock skin cells to regain their primitive immature condition. This prevents stroke
major religious and political objections against regenerative medicine, who
oppose the use of human embryos for two weeks.
Japan has been iPS cells their best scientific resources, which are
many, and are already beginning to show results. In just two weeks we have seen
two major investigations designed to obtain retinas for the blind and liver
replacement for patients who die in the line of transplants.
The first project will come in a few months, the first clinical trials
with iPS cells, and the second may take about 10 years to reach medical
practice, but both are based on very solvent and groundbreaking work on human
developmental biology. And surely there will be more in the pipeline.
Despite the above, the majority of scientists, including Japanese,
emphasizing the need to continue to work in parallel with all open lines,
including embryonic stem cells and cells combine biomechanical advances with
innovative artificial materials. The target is very important, and it makes no
sense left half forgotten tools in a drawer.
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