By Lauren Martz, Staff Writer
Separate groups at the Case Western Reserve
University School of Medicine and the Stanford University School of Medicine have
developed similar approaches to directly reprogram rodent fibroblasts into
oligodendrocyte progenitor cells.1,2 The direct lineage conversion
method could be a safe and fast way to supply cells for myelination disorder
cell therapies. Now, the teams need to show that their methods also reprogram
human fibroblasts.
Myelination
disorders include leukodystrophies and autoimmune conditions such as multiple
sclerosis (MS). In all cases, loss of the myelin sheaths around axons of
neurons impairs nerve firing and causes nervous system deficiencies.
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