2023-10-29 16:54:34
These cells are firstly useful for research, to understand the mechanisms responsible for diseases and to have models for testing treatments. SPENCER PLATT/Getty Images via AFP
DECRYPTION – Announced as revolutionary around twenty years ago, the technique had to face numerous obstacles.
Replace any failing tissue or organ with new one, thanks to the injection of stem cells: it was the royal road envisaged twenty years ago… and undoubtedly the one which has disappointed the most to date. But the research carried out on these cells capable, sometimes at the cost of a few manipulations in the laboratory, of multiplying infinitely and giving birth to all types of cells in the body has not been in vain. They are starting to have concrete results.
First advance, “the means of obtaining stem cells have diversified”explains Laurent David, team leader at the Transplantation and Immunology Research Center in Nantes. Stem cells are in fact of several kinds. They can be obtained from an embryo at a very early stage of its development (between the 5th and 7th day following in vitro fertilization).
Useful for research
Only surplus embryos frozen in anticipation of a parental project ultimately abandoned are concerned, or…
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#promise.. #coming #true