There are increasingly more research groups that try to discover the mechanisms of cell differentiation in order to reprogramme differentiated cells. On this occasion, investigators from the CRG have described a process of cell reprogramming which results in morphologically and functionally distinct cells with a 100% efficiency rate.

Specifically, the researchers have used B lymphocyte precursor cells and reprogrammed them in order to transform them into macrophages using the inducible expression of only one transcription factor. Both types of cells form part of the immune system but are morphologically, structurally and functionally very different. Whereas type B lymphocytes are antibody-producing cells, macrophages are responsible, via phagocytosis, for the elimination of both foreign agents introduced into the body and dead tissue cells…