Jan. 28, 2009 For the first time, UCLA researchers have
reprogrammed human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells into the
cells that eventually become eggs and sperm, possibly opening
the door for new treatments for infertility using patient-
specific cells. The iPS cells were coaxed into forming germ line
precursor cells which include genetic material that may be
passed on to a child. The study appears January 27 in the early
online edition of the peer-reviewed journal Stem Cells. "This
finding could be important for people who are rendered infertile
through disease or injury. We may, one day, be able to replace
the germ cells that are lost," said Amander Clark, a Broad Stem
Cell Research Center scientist and senior author of the study.
"And these germ cells would be specific and genetically related
to that patient." Theoretically, an infertile patient's skin
cells, for example, could be taken and reprogrammed into iPS
cells, which, like embryonic stem cells, have the ability to
become every cell type in the h