Researchers: Stem cell line developed to avoid risk of forming tumors

As we know that hPSC, short for Human pluripotent stem cells, can become any type of cell in the adult body, which offers great potential disease modeling, drug discovery and creating replacement cells for conditions ranging from cardiovascular to Alzheimer's disease. However, there is a risk of this: the possibility that transplanted hPSCs might also develop as unwanted tumors. Recently researchers from University of California, San Diego School of Medicine describe in their new-published study in the online journal eLIFE that a new "progenitor cell" is capable of unlimited expansion and differentiation into mature kidney cells, and without the risk of forming tumors. It pushes the advances in tissue engineering and complements the goal of rebuilding or recreating functional organs. The researchers engineered an invitro microenvironment permitting homogenous expansion of hPSC progenitor cells from the mesoderm. It is one of the three primary germ layers in early embryonic development. A germ layer forms during embryogenesis. Progenitor cells are early descendants of stem cells with more limited differentiation capacity. The researchers got the results from analyses that these newly created "mesoderm progenitors" lacked tumor-forming potential, but can differentiate into specific kinds of tissue like the cells that comprise the adult kidney. This therapeutic application will be realized in a few years and show its value to the pharmaceutical industry. Extended reading here>>>http://www.cusabio.com/Clone/lmo1075-1089566.html