(Left to right: Images of an early, three day-old human embryo, five day-old human embryo, a colony of the new 3i human ESC cells developed by the Zambidis laboratory, and a colony of a conventional human ESC, which is developmentally more mature. Human ESC colonies are stained for nuclei (blue), the stem cell marker OCT4 (red), and the stem cell marker TRA-1-81 (green). Credit: Elias Zambidis and Yulian Zhao)
From article, "Researchers turn back the clock on human embryonic stem cells"
(Johns Hopkins scientists report success in using a cocktail of cell-signaling chemicals to further wind back the biological clock of human embryonic stem cells (ESCs), giving the cells the same flexibility researchers have prized in mice ESCs.)
Me, "Great news. This will go along way to help mass produce custom Human Organs to use in emergency surgeries. Where people have to wait years for a donor organ now, more people will survive with this discovery and live out their natural lifespan. It could also increase lifespans by giving older patients, whose organs are aging and are reaching the end of their life span, to implant replacement organs. Like in an automobile where you can extend its use even as it ages with replacement parts.. It could jump start a new medical field, "Life Enhancement Organ Surgery, or some kind of name..."
Continuing from article, (The investigators say the ability to reset the stem cells' developmental clock to an earlier stage offers new opportunities to successfully coax human stem cells into making any kind of cell on demand for use as transplants and in genetic disease modeling. Eventually, they may be used to create chimeric animals from which human organs could be harvested.)
