According to the Canadian Press:

A Canadian-led research team has derived transformative stem cells from a horse, which they hope will help speed healing of injured animals and provide a model for better understanding and possibly treating similar problems in people.

Led by Andras Nagy of the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto and Dr. Lawrence Smith of the University of Montreal's faculty of veterinary medicine, the team also included researchers from Pittsburgh and Kyoto, Japan. Their findings were published Monday in the journal Stem Cell Reviews and Reports.

Researchers generated induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells, from a horse fetus taken from a mare at a Quebec slaughterhouse.

What makes iPS cells distinct is that they can develop into most other cell types. The cells have potential for use in regenerative medicine, as well as development of new drugs in both preventing and treating various illnesses. The hope of regenerative medicine is to create tissues that could repair or replace organs or other tissue lost due to disease or damage.

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