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Myelination gets direct

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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