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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

University of Cambridge researchers have derived "naïve" pluripotent stem cells from a human embryo for the first time [cam.ac.uk]:

Scientists at the University of Cambridge have for the first time shown that it is possible to derive from a human embryo so-called 'naïve' pluripotent stem cells – one of the most flexible types of stem cell, which can develop into all human tissue other than the placenta. [...] In research published today in the journal Stem Cell Reports, scientists from the Wellcome Trust-Medical Research Council Cambridge Stem Cell Institute managed to remove cells from the blastocyst at around day six and grow them individually in culture. By separating the cells, the researchers in effect stopped them 'talking' to each other, preventing them from being steered down a particular path of development. "Until now it hasn't been possible to isolate these naïve stem cells, even though we've had the technology to do it in mice for thirty years – leading some people to doubt it would be possible," explains Ge Guo, the study's first author, "but we've managed to extract the cells and grow them individually in culture. Naïve stem cells have many potential applications, from regenerative medicine to modelling human disorders."

Naïve pluripotent stem cells in principle have no restrictions on the types of adult tissue into which they can develop, which means they may have promising therapeutic uses in regenerative medicine to treat devastating conditions that affect various organs and tissues, particularly those that have poor regenerative capacity, such as the heart, brain and pancreas.

Naive Pluripotent Stem Cells Derived Directly from Isolated Cells of the Human Inner Cell Mass [cell.com] (open, DOI: 10.1016/j.stemcr.2016.02.005)

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