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Concept

Transdifferentiation

The image depicts a conceptual representation of transdifferentiation, showing a circular structure with elongated, tentacle-like appendages extending outward, surrounded by smaller spherical entities, symbolizing the direct conversion of specialized cells into another type without reverting to a stem-cell state.

The conversion of one specialised cell type directly into another without first reverting to a stem-cell state. In most animals it is vanishingly rare; in Turritopsis dohrnii it is the engine of life-cycle reversal, with muscle cells, nerve cells, and digestive cells routinely swapping identity. The term is now also used for laboratory techniques that reprogram, say, a pancreatic cell into a neuron, with applications in regenerative medicine.

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