Duplicate mice from white blood cells

American scientists cloned mice from white blood cells using the same technology as Dolly sheep. The results show that it is possible to clone animals from mature (differentiated) cells, not necessarily stem cells.

(Photo: abc.net.au) This achievement is contrary to the long-held argument that mature tissues are too old to regenerate.

The cloning technique here is the nuclear transfer: whereby the cloning of the cloned animal's cells will be transferred to an egg that has been removed from the previous nucleus.

Normally, this process is very effective in mice, and usually follows a two-step process: first feeding tiny embryos, then separating the stem cells to produce young mice.

Dr. Jerry Yang from the University of Connecticut and his colleagues tried to replicate developing blood cells (leukocytes) at different stages, from the stage of true stem cell to maturation (granulocytes, ie is clearly differentiated.

"Surprisingly, the replication effect increased when we used more mature cells," Yang said. " This is indeed shocking ."

Only mature white blood cells can actually produce two living human mice, even though they all die several hours after birth.

"We had to repeat the experiment six times to ensure accuracy. Now we can say almost certainly that a cell that has completely differentiated like granulocytes still maintains its genetic ability to become into 'seeds' - can be broken down into all the cell types necessary for the development of a complete body ".

This research has supported researchers who want to use cloning technology in health. Accordingly, the future they can take out a normal cell in a patient, for example, skin cells and use it to clone the tissue or parts that need transplanting for the patient himself. To do that, adult cells must maintain rejuvenation and reprogramming capabilities.