Professor Fred Gage and his colleagues at the Salk Institute in California obtained the brain cells that can grow, divide and form specialized brain cells from tissue samples of people shortly after their deaths. Their achievement, reported in the science journal Nature on Wednesday, could overcome the ethical obstacles of using stem cells derived from embryos.
Stem cells are master cells that can grow into virtually any type of cell in the body.
Embryos are the richest source of human stem cells but their use has been dogged by ethical debate. Scientists want to use the cells to develop treatments for diseases ranging from Parkinson's, diabetes and cancers to leukemia, hepatitis and stroke. Gage and his team used biopsy or post-mortem tissue from 23 people ranging from 11 weeks to 72 years old. Tissue taken from younger individuals provided more viable cells. The scientists used special growth factors to obtain cells from the tissue, which they said was a crucial element to their success.