In work directed toward clinical application, Professor Hideyuki Okano of Keio University announced in February 2009 that mice unable to walk because of spinal injury were able to walk again about one month after receiving transplants of iPS cells. Human iPS cells were used in this experiment, which was the first to confirm the therapeutic effect of this treatment.
Also in February Professor Hiromitsu Nakauchi of the University of Tokyo succeeded in culturing iPS cells and making platelets, a blood component that plays a role in hemostasis (the process that causes bleeding to stop).
In March Professor Yoshiki Sawa at Osaka University announced that his research team had successfully used iPS cells to mitigate the symptoms of myocardial infarction in mice. The method used in this experiment was to create iPS cells from mouse cells, make them differentiate into cardiac muscle cells, and apply sheets of these differentiated cells to the heart. However, while the symptoms improved in four of eight animals, the other four developed tumors.
Continuing Successes with iPS Cell Research
