日本东京大学研究人员在3日出版的美国《细胞》杂志上发表论文说，他们成功利用大鼠的诱导多功能干细胞（iPS细胞）培育出小鼠的胰腺。
东京大学教授中内启光率领的研究小组首先通过基因手段，培育出体内缺少胰脏生成基因的雌性小鼠，这种小鼠的后代出生后将没有胰腺。随后，研究人员让这些经过基因改造的雌性小鼠交配，并在其受精卵中注入来自正常大鼠皮肤的诱导多功能干细胞。结果，出生的小鼠体内拥有了能正常发挥作用的胰腺。
目前，使用诱导多功能干细胞开展的再生医疗研究主要集中在对脏器和组织的修复上，虽然通过这种干细胞在体内培育器官的研究尚处起步阶段，但相关研究成果为再生医疗领域的研究带来了新希望。
生物谷推荐原文出处：
Cell doi：10.1016/j.cell.2010.07.039
Generation of Rat Pancreas in Mouse by Interspecific Blastocyst Injection of Pluripotent Stem Cells
Toshihiro Kobayashi, Tomoyuki Yamaguchi, Sanae Hamanaka, Megumi Kato-Itoh, Yuji Yamazaki, Makoto Ibata, Hideyuki Sato, Youn-Su Lee, Jo-ichi Usui, A.S. Knisely, Masumi Hirabayashi, Hiromitsu Nakauchi
The complexity of organogenesis hinders in vitro generation of organs derived from a patient's pluripotent stem cells (PSCs), an ultimate goal of regenerative medicine. Mouse wild-type PSCs injected into Pdx1/ (pancreatogenesis-disabled) mouse blastocysts developmentally compensated vacancy of the pancreatic developmental niche, generating almost entirely PSC-derived pancreas. To examine the potential for xenogenic approaches in blastocyst complementation, we injected mouse or rat PSCs into rat or mouse blastocysts, respectively, generating interspecific chimeras and thus confirming that PSCs can contribute to xenogenic development between mouse and rat. The development of these mouse/rat chimeras was primarily influenced by host blastocyst and/or foster mother, evident by body size and species-specific organogenesis. We further injected rat wild-type PSCs into Pdx1/ mouse blastocysts, generating normally functioning rat pancreas in Pdx1/ mice. These data constitute proof of principle for interspecific blastocyst complementation and for generation in vivo of organs derived from donor PSCs using a xenogenic environment.
