Neurons from blood cells

Human blood cells turned into stem cells of the nervous system

Alexey Yevglevsky, Naked Science

Scientists from the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg reprogrammed human blood cells and fibroblasts into stem cells of the homogeneous nervous system. The work was published in the journal Cell Stem Cell (Thier et al., Identification of Embryonic Neural Plate Border Stem Cells and Their Generation by Direct Reprogramming from Adult Human Blood Cells).

In 2006, Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka for the first time obtained induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) - stem cells formed from other cells by epigenetic reprogramming. The importance of his discovery was that iPS cells had properties identical to embryonic stem cells. He showed that only four genetic factors are needed to breed them. In 2012, he received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for this research.

For German biologists, this discovery has become especially important, because in Germany the creation of human embryonic stem cells is prohibited, said the main author of the article Andreas Trumpp. He noted that other researchers had already transformed connective tissue cells into nerve progenitor cells (neuroblasts), but their properties were not suitable for therapeutic purposes: "It was often a heterogeneous mixture of different cell types that could not exist inside the body."

German researchers, like Yamanaka, used four genetic factors, but completely different ones – specific to their reprogramming process. The resulting cells belong to a homogeneous cell type. According to the authors, they resemble stem cells of the nervous system, which are formed during embryonic development. This means that in the future they can become the basis for restorative therapy.

Schematic representation of the process of reprogramming cells and turning them into different types of neurons (from the article in Cell Stem Cell).

Researchers report that induced neural plate stem cells (iNBSCs) are able to develop in two directions. On the one hand, it is a pathway to neurons and glial cells, on the other – the formation of cells of the peripheral nervous system. Thus, the donor for the restoration of the damaged nervous system in the future may be the victim himself.

Earlier we reported that a research group from Lund University (Sweden) successfully reprogrammed human skin cells into immune cells called dendritic cells for the first time. They suggest using the invented mechanism to fight cancer.

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