New procedure to obtain induced pluripotent stem cells

For their ability to differentiate into other cell types, the embryonic stem cells hold a large potential in the medical industry.  Their use, however, poses ethical questions due to the fact that in order to obtain them, it is necessary to destroy the embryo.  For this reason, medical researches use the so-called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC).  In fact, it is possible to reprogram adult cells that can be obtained by simply drawing blood and making them "regress" to a similar state to that of embryonic stem cells. The reprogrammed cells (iPSC) are capable of creating all the cell types of an adult organism, such as brain or heart cells.

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