Reproductive cloning is one step away

Feb 5, 2009 14:37 GMT  ·  By

According to researchers at the Advanced Cell Technology biotech company, there are, as of now, no known barriers between us and the first cloning of a human baby, for reproductive purposes. They are now confident that they can clone humans not only for stem cells (when the embryo only lives a few days before being destroyed), but for infants as well.

Although the research team, led by chief scientific office Robert Lanza, was not working on a way to clone humans, they stumbled upon it accidentally. They were actually trying to find ways of constructing stem cells via the use of human DNA inserted into animal cells. The researchers had little luck finding human cells, so they managed with the little that they had at the time. They used cow, rabbit and human cells for their research, meaning that they stripped those guest cells of their content, and then added the human DNA.

But the results of their review of the process, some time later, were amazing even to the investigators. They learned that the human-human combination of DNA and cells had been behaving in very much the same way future babies behaved at IVF clinics. That is to say, they looked like they were ready for implantation in a womb, as babies who were conceived in-vitro were after fertilization. Their paper, detailing the entire process, to be published in an upcoming edition of the journal Cloning and Stem Cells, also says that the donor DNA wasn't being reprogrammed in the result samples they got from the study, which means that the whole mix was actually behaving like a viable embryo.

The scientists reported that several key genes were activated once the DNA transfer in the host cell took place, which was unexpected, and also didn't happen with the other combinations, such as for instance that between cow and rabbit, or any similar such combining. The Oct-4, Sox-2 and nanog genes were identified, and they were linked to an interesting effect – to revert the entire genome to an embryonic state, suitable for development in the womb.