New type of stem cell discovered
The earlier view of the scientific community was that melanocytes, the pigment cells, derive from the spinal cord during the early fetal period and then move over on to the skin.
Patrik Ernfors at Karolinska Institutet now shows that melanocytes instead usually form from Schwann cell precursors, SPs, an immature cell type in skin nerve fibers. SPs are found in both fetuses and adults. Because melanocytes have now been transformed, Ernfors believes that they can be viewed as stem cells.
