dynamic elf

Chinese experts grow live mice from skin cells.

HONG KONG, July 24 (Reuters) - Chinese researchers have managed to create powerful stem cells from mouse skin and used these to generate fertile live mouse pups.

They used induced pluripotent skin cells, or iPS cells -- cells that have been reprogrammed to look and act like embryonic stem cells. Embryonic stem cells, taken from days-old embryos, have the power to morph into any cell type and, in mice, can be implanted into a mother's womb to create living mouse pups.

Not only did they make live mice from mouse skin, they then went on to breed these mice for a couple of generations. Holy cow. Also:

Blue food dye minimizes spinal cord injuries in rats.

...ATP, a vital energy source that keeps the body's cells alive, quickly pours into the area surrounding a spinal cord injury after it occurs. Unfortunately, the release of ATP at hundreds of times the normal level kills off healthy, uninjured motor neurone cells by flooding them with a deluge of molecular signals, making the initial injury worse.

The researchers went on to inject rats with damaged spinal cords with oxidized ATP, a compound known to block ATP's effects. The animals were able to recover much of their lost limb function, to the point of being able to walk again.

However, oxidized ATP carries a risk of dangerous side effects. It also had to be injected directly into the site of a wound to achieve results - not a practical option for treating spinal injury patients.

The beauty of BBG - the chemical equivalent of blue food dye No1 - is that it could potentially be given as a standard injection, away from the wound itself. In tests on rats, an injection of BBG produced very similar effects to those achieved by oxidized ATP. There was just one curious side effect - the animals temporarily developed a blue tinge to their skin.

Witness this adorable science shit in action (pic lifted from National Geographic):