Breakthrough: scientists clone human embryo for first time
By Lauran Neergaard, AP
12 February 2004
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_medical/story.jsp?story=490521
The Independent
Researchers in South Korea have for the first time cloned a human embryo and
extracted stem cells, marking an important step towards one day growing
patients' own replacement tissue to treat diseases.
The experiment, reported in tomorrow's edition of the US magazine Science,
is certain to revive the international controversy over human cloning.
The technique is not cloning to make babies, but "therapeutic cloning".
Embryos that are the genetic twins of a particular patient are grown in a
test tube to supply master stem cells that can grow into any tissue -
without being rejected by that patient's immune system.
The technique offers the potential of breakthrough treatments for diabetes,
Parkinson's and other diseases, but any therapy is years away from being
tested in people.
Scientists have used therapeutic cloning to partially cure laboratory mice
with an immune system disease. And they know how to cull stem cells from
human embryos left over in fertility clinics, offering the potential of cell
therapy but not patient-specific treatment.
But attempts at cloning a human embryo in the stem-cell quest have failed
until now. And this time the scientists have provided proof of their work,
in contrast to some fertility doctors who made doubted claims about
producing embryonic clones.
Scientists from Seoul National University report they succeeded - thanks,
they say, to using extremely fresh eggs donated by South Korean volunteers
and finding a gentler way of handling the genetic material inside them.
It is elegant work that provides long-anticipated proof that the technique
is possible using human cells, said stem-cell researcher Dr Rudolf Jaenisch
of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge,
Massachusetts.
"That's an important point to prove," he said.
Still, "it's not of practical use at this point," Jaenisch said, stressing
that years of additional research are required.
For one thing, the cloning technique still does not work well: The Seoul
team collected 242 eggs, from which they succeeded in cloning 30 blastocysts
- early-stage embryos containing a mere 100 cells. From those, they
harvested just one colony of stem cells.
Still, it is likely to renew debate over whether all forms of human cloning
should be banned. The US House of Representatives last year voted to do
that, but the Senate stalled over whether there should be an exception for
research of this type.
Internationally, the United States is pushing for a United Nations ban of
all human cloning, too. The UN General Assembly recently postponed a
decision. There is almost universal support for a global ban of reproductive
cloning, but Britain and a number of other countries want cloning for
medical experiments left unhindered.

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