We calculated these transition probabilities using data from the longitudinal National Health and Nutrition Evaluation Survey, which assessed a cohort
of women in 1987 and the
same women again in 1992.25 Several limitations
of these data affect our model: 1) because this national survey lacks data on
women before
age 35 years,
women in our model could not develop hypertension, type 2 diabetes mellitus, or MI before
age 35 years; 2) because longitudinal survey data were only
available for a 5 - year interval, we assumed that transition probabilities were stable within the 5 - year intervals and converted these probabilities from 5 - year to 1 - year intervals; 3) because the survey data were too few to provide stable estimates by year
of age, we used transition probabilities for
women in three
age groups:
aged 50 years and younger, 51 — 65 years, and 65 years and older.
Now Yamanaka and his colleagues report in the journal Cell that the
same combination
of genes induced pluripotency in commercially
available human fibroblasts (connective tissue cells that play a crucial role in healing) derived from the facial skin
of a 36 - year - old
woman, the joint tissue
of a man,
aged 69, and a newborn, respectively.