Acid bath offers easy path to stem cells

Just squeezing or bathing cells in acidic conditions can readily reprogram them into an embryonic state.

The news published in the journal nature talks about a new way of obtaining stem cells by applying acid. That discovery has been made by the Japanese Obokata Haruko.    

The new cell has been dubbed the STAP.                                            

A mouse embryo injected with cells made pluripotent
 through stress, tagged with a fluorescent protein.

One of the most surprising findings is that the STAP cells can also form placental tissue, something that neither iPS cells nor embryonic stem cells can do and if STAP cells can create their own placenta, they could be transferred directly to the surrogate.

That discover is important to understand nuclear reprogramming, says Shinya Yamanaka, who pioneered iPS cell research.

Link to the article in the journal "Nature"