3 replies to this topic

[manofsan]

I was reading this article:

http://pubs.acs.org/.../8201notw1.html

Is it possible for a single chemical substance to universally induce
anti-differentiation amongst differentiated cells? How could this be?

[manofsan]

What would happen if you bathed in the stuff? Would you just suddenly devolve into some protoplasmic blob? How are the physical characteristics of stem cells compared to differentiated cells, anyway? Are they gooey or something?

[chubtoad]

Indeed, this chemical does seem to undifferentiate the cells. I read about this in one of the last few issues of Nature. It is still very limited, but a good start nonetheless.

[chubtoad]

Here is an article from Nature,
http://www.nature.co.../040126-14.html