In July he coaxed mouse embryonic stem cells to reconnect the nerves and muscles of paralyzed rats, allowing limited walking.

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Led by George Daley of Children's Hospital in Boston, the researchers began their process by culturing mouse embryonic stem cells to form globular clusters called embryoid bodies.

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These cells were also created using mouse cells, starting with mouse skin cells, and the comparison between what you get from a mouse cell that's transformed this way and an embryonic stem cell, they look to be very similar.

NPR: Scientists Create Embryonic Stem Cells from Skin

In related news, researcher Shinya Yamanaka in Japan has turned mouse skin cells into cells that are indistinguishable from the embryonic kind--meaning, that they can conceivably be turned into heart cells, liver cells or just about any other kind of cell scientists want to study or, eventually, use as a therapy.

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First came the remarkable work of Shinya Yamanaka at Kyoto University, who showed it was possible, by activating just four genes, to take a mature cell (he used a bit of skin but other cells would work) and turn it into the equivalent of an embryonic stem cell with the potential to become any other cell in the body of mouse or human.

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Certainly the mouse work suggests that they will be able to do all the things that embryonic stem cells do, but right now we don't know.

NPR: Scientists Create Embryonic Stem Cells from Skin