title: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Bath, Bath BA2 7AY, UK. j.m.w.slack@bath.ac.uk
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Slack
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005314:Embryonic and Fetal Development / Q000502:physiology*; D008322:Mammals; D009024:Morphogenesis; D012867:Skin / Q000166:cytology*; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology