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Cells Exhibit 'Extreme Makeover'

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The Washington Post

Published: August 28, 2008

WASHINGTON - Scientists have transformed one type of fully developed adult cell directly into another inside a living animal, a startling advance that could lead to cures for a plethora of illnesses and sidestep the political and ethical quagmires that have plagued embryonic stem cell research.

Through a series of painstaking experiments involving mice, the Harvard biologists pinpointed three crucial molecular switches that, when flipped, completely convert a common cell in the pancreas into the more precious insulin-producing ones that diabetics need to survive.

The feat, published online Wednesday by the journal Nature, raises the tantalizing prospect that patients suffering from not only diabetes but also heart disease, strokes and many other ailments could eventually have some of their cells reprogrammed to cure their afflictions without the need for drugs, transplants or other therapies.

"It's kind of an extreme makeover of a cell," said Douglas Melton, co-director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, who led the research. "The goal is to create cells that are missing or defective in people. It's very exciting."

"I think it's hugely significant," said George Daley, a stem cell researcher at Children's Hospital in Boston. "This is a very spectacular first."

Even the harshest critics of embryonic stem cell research hailed the development as a major, welcome development.

"I see no moral problem in this basic technique," said Richard Doerflinger of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, a leading opponent of embryonic stems cells because they involve destroying human embryos. "This is a 'win-win' situation for medicine and ethics."

Melton and other researchers cautioned that many years of research lie ahead to prove whether the development would translate into cures.

"It's an important proof of concept," said Lawrence Goldstein, a stem cell researcher at the University of California, San Diego. "But these things always look easier on the blackboard than when you have to do them in actual patients."

Although the experiment involved mice, Melton and other researchers were optimistic the approach would work in people.

"You never know for sure - mice aren't humans," Daley said. "But the biology of pancreatic development is very closely related in mice and humans."

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