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(Stroke. 2008;39:273.)
© 2008 American Heart Association, Inc.

Advances in Stroke 2007

Advances in Stroke Regenerative Medicine 2007

From the King’s College London School of Medicine (L.K.), London, UK; Burke-Cornell Medical Research Institute (R.R.R.), Weill Medical College of Cornell University, White Plains, NY.

Correspondence to Lalit Kalra, King’s College London School of Medicine, Bessemer Road, London, United Kingdom, SEP 9PJ. E-mail Lalit.kalra@kcl.ac.uk

Key Words: advances • regenerative medicine • stroke

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

We have been charged with the enviable task of highlighting discoveries in the past year that will impact the way stroke rehabilitation is investigated and the way that it is practiced. Regenerative medicine continues to ascend as a discipline. Much of this ascendancy can be attributed to the growing interest and debate surrounding embryonic stem cells and their potential applications for stroke and many other diseases.

Regenerative Medicine: Reprogramming Fibroblasts to Make Stem Cells

Replacing cells after stroke makes sense. Many cell types including neurons are lost. As the common final pathway of electrical and chemical signaling in the brain, neurons should be replaced to optimally reduce disability and handicaps. Critical and as yet unanswered questions are only beginning to be addressed: Which cells do we transplant? When do we transplant them? and Where do we transplant them?¹ The most exciting new piece of data in 2007 comes from studies at MIT, The University of Wisconsin and Japan that suggest that fibroblasts can be reprogrammed to make embryonic stem cells.^2,3,4 Specifically, the expression of 4 proteins (all molecular switches in gene expression known as transcription factors) in a fibroblast can turn the cell into a pluripotent stem cell. Indeed, Rudolf Janeisch and colleagues at MIT showed that these reprogrammed cells meet the most stringent definition of "stemness"—a single cell could give rise to a whole organism. The findings are exciting for those interested in regenerative medicine in stroke for a host of reasons: (1) they offer a proof-of-concept of the notion that embryos need not be destroyed to . . . [Full Text of this Article]