Scientists for the first time have cloned cells from two adults to create early stage embryos, and then derived tissue from those embryos that perfectly matched the DNA of the donors.
The experiment represents another advance in the quest to make tissue in the laboratory that could treat a range of maladies, from heart attacks to Alzheimer’s. The study, involving a 35-year-old man and a 75-year-old, was published in the journal Cell Stem Cell.
The creation of the first early stage human clones, using infant and fetal cells rather than those from adults, was reported last year. The new experiment, with a few tweaks, confirms that striking and controversial breakthrough and also shows the technique works on mature cells.
“The proportion of diseases you can treat with [lab-made tissue] increases with age. So if you can’t do this with adult cells, it is of limited value,” said Robert Lanza, co-author of the study and chief scientific officer at Advanced Cell Technology Inc. of Marlborough, Mass. The study was funded in part by the government of Korea and done at a lab in California.
Read the full, original story: Scientists Make First Embryo Clones From Adults
