Cloned Monkey Embryos Stem Cell Boon?

Oregon Researchers Make Scientific Breakthrough, But Medical Treatments Are A Long Way Off

(AP)  Gleaning stem cells from cloned monkey embryos, as a team of Oregon researchers has done, is an impressive step. But it probably will not lead to medical treatments any time soon.

One hurdle is ethical and political. Human embryos have to be destroyed to produce stem cells. That has aroused opposition to human embryonic stem cell research, and it led the Bush administration to restrict federal funding for it. Scientists say that has slowed science in this effort.

Another hurdle is the inefficiency of the process. Even if the method described by scientists Wednesday works in humans, it would demand too much of a precious resource - women's unfertilized eggs.

The promise of producing stem cells by cloning is that they can be genetically matched to a particular patient. So theoretically, doctors should be able to transplant tissue created from them into that person without tissue rejection. And presumably, such transplants could help treat such conditions as diabetes and spinal cord injury.

The process used in the new experiment is "quite inefficient," Shoukhrat Mitalipov of the Oregon National Primate Research Center in Portland told reporters Wednesday.

He and his colleagues reported getting two batches of stem cells that required using about 150 monkey eggs apiece. That is far too many if one hopes to use human unfertilized eggs, which are cumbersome to obtain from women.

If further work can get that down to maybe five to 10 eggs per stem cell batch, "we will be closer to clinical applications," Mitalipov said.

"I am quite sure it will work in humans," he added.

But then there is another issue - showing that such stem cells really can be used to treat diseases safely. Mitalipov said he plans to do diabetes studies in monkeys.

For now, he and other scientists said, the new work is valuable for showing that stem cells can be produced through cloning in monkeys. It has been done in mice, but scientists had long been frustrated in their attempts in primates, where the research would be more relevant to humans.

The new work was published online Wednesday by the scientific journal Nature. The success was reported earlier this year at a research meeting in Australia, where it received limited media coverage. The results were given new attention Tuesday by a London newspaper, The Independent.

Dr. George Daley of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, who was familiar with the work, told The Associated Press in an e-mail that it was a "a very important demonstration" that the process is feasible in primates.

Mitalipov's team merged skin cells of a 9-year-old rhesus macaque male with unfertilized monkey eggs that had the DNA removed. The eggs, now operating with DNA from the skin cells, grew into early embryos in the laboratory. Stem cells were recovered from these embryos.

The researchers have applied for a patent on their procedure.

Mitalipov said separate experiments obtained monkey stem cells from a different process called parthenogenesis, in which an egg grows into an early embryo without any genetic contribution from a male. The stem cells were genetic matches to the females that produced the eggs, he said, and early experiments suggest stem cells derived this way may someday prove useful for treating disease in women.

Nature took the unusual step of asking a separate group of scientists to verify Mitalipov's cloning results, and it published the verification along with Mitalipov's paper.

In an e-mail, the journal cited the highly publicized 2004 fraud that came out of South Korea, where researchers led by Hwang woo-Suk claimed to have produced stem cells from a cloned human embryo.

The journal said the research to verify Mitalipov's findings did not signal mistrust, but noted that questions would likely be raised, and "we view this as a relatively straightforward way of putting these questions to rest."

The verification study, by David Cram and others at the Monash University in Australia, used DNA analysis of the male macaque, the two monkeys whose eggs were used to create embryos, and the stem cells. The result "demonstrates beyond any doubt" that the stem cells came from cloned embryos, the Australians wrote in their Nature paper.

[nggr]

i have found jesus.
i was walking on the beach and noticed two sets of footprints, it was jesus.
then i noticed he dropped to his knees in front of me.
he unzipped my pants and fellated me.
and then said that singinrick was also a closet homosexual, i told him i forgive him, but he said not to.

[candide777]

Top 10 Reasons Why Liberals Hate Christians
Posted by singinrick at 11:40 PM : Nov 14, 2007

Rick, I do not hate true Christians at all. I challenge you to show me one place that I''ve expressed hatred to true Christians -- you can''t (at least no more than I can show you places where you expressed hatred of gay people, which you emphatically deny while comparing them to murderers and pedophiles. In short, stop your hypocritical whining. Also, rather than crying incessantly on these boards about how liberals are persecuting you, why don''t you spend more time praying for God to strike them dead? Wouldn''t that be a more productive use of your time?

[candide777]

The authors of the Bible were divinely hand picked by God Himself curse. God is the true author. They were merely His secretaries.


Look it up.


Posted by singinrick at 11:55 PM : Nov 14, 2007

LOL -- the Bible is totally true because it says so! This is too funny for words. Rick, stop pretending to be God, and stop judging others who live virtuous lives according to their own reasoned moral and ethical code. Like it or not, Rick, you CHOOSE to believe the Bible. You could just as easily choose otherwise and many people have. Your arrogance is offensive to rational human beings, and your condemnations are disgusting.

[messenger9]

Yes fund the researchs so it can be kept secret too.
As long as the public remains intimidated by federal systems, as they by educational and pharmaceuticals, we can understand now why the masses cannot understand how a 60 cent micro electrode is able to rid cancer 100%! Yet funds are still being granted to find the cure.
Roger Vogelsang 11-14-1999

[messenger9]

Tenure seeking science research intellectuals know best where to hide their data as look the other way for evidence, just as academic programmed lawyers and their close political henchmen!
Roger Vogelsang 11-14-1999

[myidoncbs]

singinrick says, "The authors of the Bible were divinely hand picked by God Himself curse. God is the true author. They were merely His secretaries."

But HOW could that be true? There are MANY versions of the Bible. They say different things. Even if you pick ONE bible, IT says things that contradict itself!

You have to be VERY weak-minded, to say the least, to accept that all as the word of God! (Unless you believe God is a confused lunatic.)

In fact, it turns out that EVERYTHING you believe is contradicted by something in the Bible, sin-gin.

Look it up!

[memerider]

Embryonic stem cell research truly is a wide-open frontier. I see a lot of promise to help people with all sorts of debilitating diseases. We have already seen some early success, and as we unlock the genome, the future is sure to provide a rich reward.

Anything new is always perceived with suspicion by those who hold strong cultural views and worry that some will cross moral lines (they always do). Both the tendency to believe cultural dogma and the tendency to relentlessly pursue the science seem to be normal aspects of human behavior.

[brianbwb-2009]

Those idiots played with monkey blood before, now we have AIDS ravaging the world.

What, your bioweapon was not fast enough?

[radiob-2009]

There are valid ethnical concerns with these experiments that have to be considered. What will the end results be used for? At what point do we draw a line on cloning? Stem cell research or should we allow "science" to be unhindered and conduct experiments in the fashion of the Germans during WWII?
These "lab" animals are still a part of our universe and have "rights" to be what they are. Something "science" often overlooks.

[radiob-2009]

Posted by curse914

What about the epileptics that were burned at the stake as witches in Salem by the protestants?

[radiob-2009]

This reminds me of Koontz book "Fear Nothing" where experiments were carried out on Rhesus monkeys for curing Xeroderma pigmentosum in Christopher Snow the experiment turns amuck (Chris is not aware of these experiments) and becomes deadly to the townspeople.
Although stem cell research could and the key word is could produce some advances in medicine and possibly again a key word what science is attempting although the primary reasons are noted as being for the benefit of mankind, what will the actual results be used for? Military? And what will the actual results be?

[antizion]

Did Barbara Bush donate the eggs? God forbid we should have a bunch of Chimpys as a result of this.

Oh... and don''t forget, Bush is a uniter, not a divider... Mission Accomplished.

[ojisnigrscum]

Oh wait...I thought howcould was a monkey ****** too, but he''s really just a plain old MONKEY...are youchecking for hair on your knuckles now howcould? Or, maybe you really just enjoy all that monkey ****** jabber you post while you''re filling your mothers a$$ up with your monkey ****?

[ojisnigrscum]

So these monkey stem cells would really only be for research on how to give monkey ******* like lastdance a lobotomy to improve their intellect?

[ojisnigrscum]

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Posted by lastdance4

Hey you fu(king moron, maybe you should be from: The United Brotherhood Of I Can''t Even Spell The Name Of My Own Organization...

Idiot

[lastdance4]

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Post Serious Comments - Go over to ABC News
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Lastdance

[lastdance4]

RE : howcould - (aka...donnie900)

How much more nonsense - Spam - will you post today ??

[howcould]

I think we should ban abortion cuz''a you ******** skkkanks. Not cuz I thought about it. But just cuz I don''t like you ******** byyytches no more. Yer a buncha ******** morons..

[howcould]

Ya like being a ******** media floozie? Or is it yer ******** calling in life? Byyytch.

[howcould]

I suckkkk dddick cuz''a you byyytches.