Scientists Find New Evidence of Cell ‘Promiscuity’: Fully Differentiated Blood Cells Remain Able to Switch Identity
Monday, December 16, 2002
PHILADELPHIA – Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine have found a new wrinkle in the developmental biology dogma that cell differentiation occurs irreversibly as stem cells give rise to increasingly specialized types of offspring cells. The researchers have shown that certain mouse cells retain an ability to oscillate between very distinct blood cell types – B-cells and macrophages – long after what has been commonly regarded as the point of no return.
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