Human skin cells reprogrammed directly into brain cells

Human skin cells reprogrammed directly into brain cells

(http://medicalxpress.com/news/2014-10-human-skin-cells-reprogrammed-brain.html)

Generation of Human Striatal Neurons by MicroRNA-Dependent Direct Conversion of Fibroblasts

(http://www.cell.com/neuron/abstract/S0896-6273(14)00914-3)

Scientists have described a way to convert human skin cells directly into a specific type of brain cell affected by Huntington's disease, an ultimately fatal neurodegenerative disorder. Unlike other techniques that turn one cell type into another, this new process does not pass through a stem cell phase, avoiding the production of multiple cell types, the study's authors report. The researchers, at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, demonstrated that these converted cells survived at least six months after injection into the brains of mice and behaved similarly to native cells in the brain. Human skin cells (top) can be converted into medium spiny neurons (bottom) with exposure to the right combination of microRNAs and transcription factors, according to work by Andrew Yoo and his research team. Credit: Yoo lab