Chinese scientist’s research on iPS was recently chosen as one of Time’s top 10 medical breakthroughs for the year 2009.
The result of "mice made from induced stem cells" by researchers from Institute of Zoology (IOZ), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Shanghai Jiaotong University was first reported online in Nature in July, 2009. The same findings were also made by another team led by Dr. GAO Shaorong of the National Institute of Biological Sciences in Beijing.
The new pups created in two separate labs in China were the first to be bred from induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. The birth of the little mouse finally proved that iPS cells, the abbreviation of induced pluripotent stem cells, are truly pluripotent.
The Chinese group of ZHOU Qi and ZENG Fanyi reported 27 live births. Though some died after just two days and some displayed physical abnormalities, a number of mice have passed one of the most fundamental tests of health: all 12 mice that were mated produced offspring, and the offspring showed no abnormalities. The team said it now has hundreds of second-generation and more than 100 third-generation mice.
Breeding an entire mouse that is itself capable of reproducing - as the mice did in one of the Chinese labs - is a strong sign that iPS cells may be as useful as embryonic stem cells for a potential source of treatments for disease, quoted Time as scientists saying.
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