A new approach to generate stem cells from mature cells is expected to increase the production of stem cells in the laboratory and help eliminate barriers to regenerative medicine.

A new technique developed by researchers at the Salk Institute of Biology can obtain an unlimited number of stem cells and their derivatives, while reducing the production time by more than half, from nearly 2 months to 2 weeks.

One of the obstacles to overcome before stem cell therapy is widely used is how to produce enough stem cells at a sufficiently rapid rate for acute clinical applications. Stem cells are valued for their pluripotency and have the ability to become almost all cells. There are two sources of stem cells for research and clinical applications: obtaining pluripotent stem cells directly, or reprogramming mature cells into pluripotent stem cells.

Researchers developed a reprogramming methodology called "indirect lineage switching": after a brief exposure to reprogramming factors, somatic cells are pushed back to a malleable intermediate state, followed by differentiation.

Using this method, researchers have successfully transformed human fibroblasts into mesodermal progenitor cells. These progenitor cells have two-way differentiation potential and can differentiate into endothelial cells and smooth muscle cells. Specifically, the researchers transformed human fibroblasts into CD34+ progenitor cells with bipotential differentiation potential. In vivo, these differentiated endothelial cells exhibit neovascularization and anastomosis.

This indirect genealogy conversion methodology provides a simple and efficient technique. In this strategy, the complete process of reprogramming to pluripotency is shortened or bypassed, and the somatic cell transition undergoes a malleable intermediate state.

This study demonstrated for the first time that this reprogramming strategy involving partial dedifferentiation is feasible in human cells and can be used for the generation of pluripotent progenitor cells.