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Scientists were able to reprogram mature stem cells to revert back to an embryonic state, a breakthrough that could make stem cell research easier and less expensive.

In experiments that could open a new era in stem cell biology, scientists have found a cheap and easy way to reprogram mature cells from mice back into an embryonic-like state that allowed them to generate many types of tissue.

The research, described as game-changing by experts in the field, suggests human cells could in future be reprogrammed by the same technique, offering a simpler way to replace damaged cells or grow new organs for sick and injured people.

Chris Mason, chair of regenerative medicine bioprocessing at University College London, who was not involved in the work, said its approach was "the most simple, lowest-cost and quickest method" to generate so-called pluripotent cells - able to develop into many different cell types - from mature cells.

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"If it works in man, this could be the game changer that ultimately makes a wide range of cell therapies available using the patient's own cells as starting material - the age of personalized medicine would have finally arrived," he said.

The experiments, reported in two papers in the journal Nature on Wednesday, involved scientists from the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology in Japan and Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in the United States.

Beginning with mature, adult cells, researchers let them multiply and then subjected them to stress "almost to the point of death", they explained, by exposing them to various events including trauma, low oxygen levels and acidic environments.

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In a feat that experts say is a significant advance for regenerative medicine, scientists have discovered a surprisingly simple method for creating personalized stem cells that doesnt involve human embryos or tinkering with DNA.

Two studies published Wednesday in the journal Nature describe a novel procedure for reprogramming the blood cells of newborn mice by soaking the cells in a mildly acidic solution for 30 minutes. This near-fatal shock caused the cells to become pluripotent, or capable of growing into any type of cell in the body.

When the reprogrammed cells were tagged and injected into a developing mouse, they multiplied and grew into heart, bone, brain and other organs, the scientists found.

It was really surprising to see that such a remarkable transformation could be triggered simply by stimuli from outside of the cell, said lead study author Haruko Obokata, a biochemistry researcher at the RIKEN research institute in Japan. Very surprising.

The simplicity of the technique, which Obokata and her colleagues dubbed stimulus triggered acquisition of pluripotency, or STAP, caught many experts off-guard.

So you mistreat cells under the right conditions and they assume a different state of differentiation? Its remarkable, said Rudolf Jaenisch, a pioneering stem cell researcher at MIT who was not involved in the study. Lets see whether it works in human cells, and theres no reason why it shouldnt.

Obokata said that researchers had already begun experiments on human cells, but offered no details.

VIDEO: A beating heart, grown from STAP stem cells

Due to their Zelig-like ability to form any number of specialized cells, pluripotent stem cells are considered the basic building blocks of biology. Scientists are working on ways to use them to repair severed spinal cords, replace diseased organs, and treat conditions as varied as diabetes, blindness and muscular dystrophy.

By using stem cells spawned from the patients own cells, replacement tissues would stand less of a chance of being attacked by the patients own immune system, researchers say. That would spare patients the need to undergo a lifetime regimen of dangerous, immune-suppressing drugs.

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