Embryonic stem cells: cloning

Paparella M, Kolossov E, Fleischmann BK, et al. The use of quantitative image analysis in the assessment of in vitro embryotoxicity endpoints based on a novel embryonic stem cell clone with endoderm-related GFP expression. Toxicol In Vitro. 2002 16(5) 5 89-597. 

Carpenter, M. K., Rosier, E., Rao, M. S. (2003). Charactaization and differentiation of human embryonic stem cells. Cloning Stem Celt, 5, 79-88. 

Eggan K, Rode A, Jentsch I, Samuel C, Hennek T, Tintmp H, Zevnik B, Erwin J, Loring J, Jackson-Grusby L et al. (2002) Male and female mice derived from the same embryonic stem cell clone by tetraploid embryo complementation. Nat Bio-technol 20 455-459. 

We can divide cloning into therapeutic cloning and reproductive cloning. Therapeutic cloning is synonymous with stem cell research. Under proper control and environment, embryonic stem cells can potentially be directed to grow and develop into different tissues that are invaluable for replacing... 

In November 2003, the members of the Europe Parliament voted to approve embryonic stem cell research, using techniques similar to that adopted for cloning Dolly the sheep, although severe restrictions were put in place. For US scientists, however, the US legislation meant that they were only allowed to performed research using 12 existing sources of the embryonic stem cells and were not allowed to create any new sources. 

Research on human embryonic stem cells and therapeutic cloning... 

Hwang WS, Ryu YJ, Park JH, Park ES, Lee E, Koo, JM, Jeon HY, Lee BC, Kang SK, Kim SJ, Ahn C, Hwang JH, Park KY, Cibelli JB, Moon SY (2004), Evidence of a pluripotent human embryonic stem cell line derived from a cloned blastocyst, Science 303 1669-1674. 

Hai DC. 2007. Direct differentiation of human embryonic stem cells to hepatocyte-like cells exhibiting functional activities. Cloning Stem Cells 9, 51-62. 

In April 2003, the members of the Europe Parliament voted to impose severe restrictions on the use of stem cells taken from human embryos. They also called for an outright ban on human reproductive cloning. The decision has to be approved by the 15 Member States before it becomes law. If adopted, it will have a serious effect on embryonic stem cell research. 

Hwang WS, et al. Evidence of a pluripotent human embryonic stem cell line derived from a cloned blastocyst. Science 2004 303 1669-1674. 

Another quantum leap for modern biotechnology was the first cloned mammal by Ian Willmut in 1996 (see his quote for Modern Biopharmaceuticals ) by means of somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) -the sheep Dolly . Then, in 2004, the first human embryo was cloned by a team led by Woo Suk Hwang, who was able to obtain pluripotent embryonic stem cells by SCNT of reprogrammed human adult cells. The highly differentiated genetic pro-... 

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