almost a decade ago, in February 2004, South Korea’s Hwang Woo-Suk claimed to have successfully cloned 30 human embryos in order to accelerate the development of new therapies through stem cell transplants. That was later revealed as a gigantic fraud that ended Woo-Suk sentenced to two years in prison by a court in Seoul, accused of embezzling state funds and violation of the laws of bioethics. But what then seemed like science fiction just make it happen a team of American researchers from the University of Oregon Health and Science (OHSU, for its acronym in English) and the Centre National Primate Research (ONPRC).
A team led by the Russian-born scientist has managed Shoukhrat Mitalipov first produce human stem cells by nuclear transfer. I have made from skin cells, which have become embryonic stem cells capable of developing into any type of cell in the body.
The finding opens the door to therapies that allow cells to replace damaged by injury or disease. Among the diseases that can be treated are Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis or certain injuries to the spinal cord. But, in practice, the possibilities are endless, and that the stem cells can be reprogrammed to acquire the characteristics of different types of cells, including nerve cells in the liver and heart.
“Our results provide a new way to generate stem cells from patients with tissues and organs damaged or deteriorated,” he explained in a statement Mitalipov. “These stem cells can regenerate and replace damaged cells and improve those diseases that affect millions of people,” he added.
The technique used has two specific advantages. On one hand, because the reprogrammed cells can be generated with nuclear genetic material from a patient, there is no concern of transplant rejection.
class=”texto”>No fertilized eggs
The second has to do with the ethical that have raised great controversy over stem cell therapies from fertilized embryos. In this case we used unfertilized eggs from healthy volunteers, which removed the core, and within the cytoplasm introduced the nucleus of a cell of the skin (fibroblast) of a patient with Leigh syndrome.
From studies first developed in monkey cells, the Oregon team found a way to stimulate the eggs to remain in a state called “metaphase” during the process of nuclear transfer. This prevents the process tank, so cells develop and produce stem cells.
Nuclear transfer is the same procedure as was used to clone Dolly the sheep in 1996. However, yesterday rushed Mitalipov adevertir that “human cloning is not our goal, nor do we believe that our findings could be used by others to advance the possibility of reproductive cloning of human beings.” Sounds like an excuse, because research is all about time and money.
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