Embryonic stem cells from adult cells have been cloned by US researchers. This finding is a breakthrough on the path towards helping doctors treat a host of diseases.
The embryonic stem cells -- which were created by fusing an adult skin cell with an egg cell that had been stripped of genetic material -- were genetically identical to the donors.
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The hope is that cloned embryonic stem cells, which are capable of transforming into any other type of cell in the body, could be used in patient-specific regenerative therapy to repair or replace an individual's organs damaged by diseases including cancer, heart disease and Alzheimer's disease.
The team of researchers, led by Robert Lanza, of the Massachusetts-based company Advanced Cell Technology, used a technique that had succeeded last year with infant skin cells.
![Quiz on Stem Cells]( "Quiz on Stem Cells")
Scientists believe (and are working hard) to use stem cells in the future to treat a wide range of diseases and injuries. But what exactly is a stem cell? How can it be used in curing disorders? See if you get your answers from this quiz.
But Lanza's team, funded in part by the South Korean government, used cells from a 35-year-old man and a 75-year-old man.
This is a significant step forward, the researchers wrote in the study published Thursday in the journal Cell Stem Cell.
"For many cell types, reprogramming is more difficult for adult cells than for fetal/infant cells, presumably at least in part because (they are) ... further removed from the pluripotent state" in which the cells can develop into different types, the study said.
Yet adults are more likely than infants to need regenerative therapy, the authors wrote, noting that "the incidence of many diseases that could be treated with pluripotent cell derivatives increases with age."
One advantage of this approach is that it does not use fertilized embryos to obtain stem cells, a technique that raises major ethical issues because the embryo is destroyed.
But critics, including the Catholic Church, believe it presents a slippery slope that could lead to cloning of human beings, a suggestion scientists deny.
Since the birth of Dolly the sheep in 1996 in the United Kingdom, the first cloned animal, researchers have cloned some 20 species including goats and rabbits, but never monkeys or primates whose biology and reproduction is more complex.
Years of research on monkey cells using the same technique have not successfully produced any monkey clones.
Source: AFP
Quiz on Stem Cells
Scientists believe (and are working hard) to use stem cells in the future to treat a wide range of diseases and injuries. But what exactly is a stem cell? How can it be used in curing disorders? See if you get your answers from this quiz.
Advertisement
But Lanza's team, funded in part by the South Korean government, used cells from a 35-year-old man and a 75-year-old man.
This is a significant step forward, the researchers wrote in the study published Thursday in the journal Cell Stem Cell.
"For many cell types, reprogramming is more difficult for adult cells than for fetal/infant cells, presumably at least in part because (they are) ... further removed from the pluripotent state" in which the cells can develop into different types, the study said.
Yet adults are more likely than infants to need regenerative therapy, the authors wrote, noting that "the incidence of many diseases that could be treated with pluripotent cell derivatives increases with age."
One advantage of this approach is that it does not use fertilized embryos to obtain stem cells, a technique that raises major ethical issues because the embryo is destroyed.
But critics, including the Catholic Church, believe it presents a slippery slope that could lead to cloning of human beings, a suggestion scientists deny.
Since the birth of Dolly the sheep in 1996 in the United Kingdom, the first cloned animal, researchers have cloned some 20 species including goats and rabbits, but never monkeys or primates whose biology and reproduction is more complex.
Years of research on monkey cells using the same technique have not successfully produced any monkey clones.
Source: AFP
Transcription Factors Distinguishing Glioblastoma Stem Cells Discovered
Activity of four transcription factors distinguishes a small proportion of glioblastoma stem cells responsible for the aggressiveness and treatment resistance of the deadly brain tumor.
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 Stem Cells may Help Treat Diseased BladderCuring of diseased bladders is now possible with the help of unique cells from laboratory cultures of human stem cells as revealed by the scientists. | Advertisement
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