Engineering Adult Stem Cells to Cure Blind Mice
Researchers at the University of Florida claim to be the first to use targeted gene manipulation to take adult stem cells and change them into another kind of cell completely. They changed the stem cells, from bone marrow in this instance, into retinal cells. These retinal cells, when injected into blind mice, helped cure their blindness. The scientists started by extracting the blood stem cells from the bone marrow of a mouse, and used a virus to insert a new gene into the cells. This gene caused the cell to start producing a lot of a certain protein that is only found in retinal cells, basically convincing the cell it was a retinal cell. According to the researchers, drugs could perform the same function as this gene therapy. The final transformation was only completed once the manipulated cells were injected back into the mouse. Once they were in the bloodstream, the body...