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Stem cells: Changing fates The possibility that adult stem cells might be used in cell therapy gained a boost when it was claimed that when exposed to new environments they can be remarkably 'plastic', a neural stem cell producing cells of a different tissue for instance. Some of these claims have been hard to reproduce, and some have been reinterpreted, leaving the phenomenon of adult stem-cell plasticity in limbo. The pendulum has swung to cell fusion, rather than transdifferentiation, as an explanation for apparent cell-fate switching. But a paper published this week may push the pendulum back a little. Mouse neural stem cells, committed to becoming neurons and glial cells, were co-cultured with human endothelial cells from the lining of blood vessels. Surprisingly, 6% of the neural stem cells converted to cells expressing endothelial markers, and gained the capacity to form capillary networks. These cells do seem to be changing their fate, in the absence of cell fusion. Cell fusion-independent differentiation of neural stem cells to the endothelial lineage ANDREW E. WURMSER, KINICHI NAKASHIMA, ROBERT G. SUMMERS, NICOLAS TONI, KEVIN A. D'AMOUR, DIETER C. LIE & FRED H. GAGE Nature 430, 350-356 (2004); doi:10.1038/nature02604 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn