Editing Transdifferentiation (section)

==Natural examples==
The only<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-02-22 |title=Life with no Limits: The Immortal Jellyfish |url=https://youthmedicaljournal.com/2022/02/21/life-with-no-limits-the-immortal-jellyfish%EF%BF%BC/ |access-date=2025-01-30 |website=Youth Medical Journal |language=en}}</ref> known instances where adult cells change directly from one lineage to another occurs in the species ''[[Turritopsis dohrnii#Biological immortality|Turritopsis dohrnii]]'' (also known as the immortal jellyfish) and ''[[Turritopsis nutricula]]''.

In [[newt]]s, when the eye lens is removed, pigmented [[epithelial]] cells de-differentiate and then redifferentiate into the lens cells.<ref>{{Cite journal 
| last1 = Jopling | first1 = C. 
| last2 = Boue | first2 = S. 
| last3 = Belmonte | first3 = J. C. I. 
| doi = 10.1038/nrm3043 
| title = Dedifferentiation, transdifferentiation and reprogramming: Three routes to regeneration 
| journal = Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology 
| volume = 12 
| issue = 2 
| pages = 79–89 
| year = 2011 
| pmid = 21252997 
| s2cid = 205494805 
}}</ref> Vincenzo Colucci described this phenomenon in 1891 and Gustav Wolff described the same thing in 1894; the priority issue is examined in Holland (2021). <ref name=Holland>{{citation |title=Vicenzo Colucci's 1886 memoir, Intorno alla rigenerazione degli arti e della coda nei tritoni, annotated and translated into English as: Concerning regeneration of the limbs and tail in salamanders | first=Nicholas | last=Holland | journal=The European Zoological Journal | volume=88 | year=2021| pages=837–890 | doi=10.1080/24750263.2021.1943549 | doi-access=free }}</ref>

In humans and mice, it has been demonstrated that alpha cells in the [[pancreas]] can spontaneously switch fate and transdifferentiate into beta cells. This has been demonstrated for both healthy and diabetic human and mouse [[pancreatic islets]].<ref>{{Cite journal
| last1 = van der Meulen | first1 = T. 
| last2 = Mawla | first2 = A.M. 
| last3 = DiGruccio | first3 = M.R. 
| last4 = Adams | first4 = M.W.
| last5 = Nies | first5 = V.
| last6 = Dolleman | first6 = S.  
| last7 = Liu | first7 = S.  
| last8 = Ackermann | first8 = A.M.  
| last9 = Caceres | first9 = E.
| last10 = Hunter | first10 = A.E.  
| last11 = Kaestner | first11 = K.H.  
| last12 = Donaldson | first12 = C.J.  
| last13 = Huising | first13 = M.O.  
| doi = 10.1016/j.cmet.2017.03.017
| title = Virgin Beta Cells Persist throughout Life at a Neogenic Niche within Pancreatic Islets
| journal = Cell Metabolism
| volume = 25
| issue = 4 
| pages = 911–926 
| year = 2017 
| pmid = 28380380 
| pmc = 8586897 
| url = https://escholarship.org/content/qt85r6t1w6/qt85r6t1w6.pdf?t=oxu8pq| doi-access = free}}</ref> While it was previously believed that [[oesophageal]] cells were developed from the transdifferentiation of smooth muscle cells, that has been shown to be false.<ref>{{Cite journal 
| last1 = Rishniw | first1 = M. 
| last2 = Xin | first2 = H. B. 
| last3 = Deng | first3 = K. Y. 
| last4 = Kotlikoff | first4 = M. I. 
| title = Skeletal myogenesis in the mouse esophagus does not occur through transdifferentiation 
| doi = 10.1002/gene.10198 
| journal = Genesis 
| volume = 36 
| issue = 2 
| pages = 81–82 
| year = 2003 
| pmid = 12820168 
| s2cid = 20010447 
}}</ref>