Skinny dipping for stem cells

Abstract

Stem cells have been big news for the past couple of years and yet they remain remarkably inscrutable in terms of declaring their true nature and identity. On pages 778-784 of this issue, Toma et al. describe the identification of a new type of stem cell from the dermis of ths skin, called skin-derived precursor (SKP) cells. These can be converted into several differentiated cell types in vitro, including neurons, and might become a source of cells for therapeutic tissue repair.