U.S. scientists succeed in cloning human embryos and obtaining stem cells for therapeutic use

A team of U.S. researchers has conducted a clinical experiment that promises to revolutionize the field of regenerative medicine. Scientists have succeeded in cloning human embryos and, for the first time in history, deriving stem cells for therapeutic purposes. The research, led by Shoukhrat Mitalipov at Oregon Health & Science University, represents a historic breakthrough in cloning because embryonic stem cells (not from other species) can be used to restore damaged organs or tissues, i.e. to develop treatments for hitherto incurable diseases. Dr. Javier Nadal Pereña, coordinator of the Assisted Reproduction Unit at Centro Médico Teknon, considers the discovery to be “very positive and encouraging news for the regenerative medicine of the future”. “The fact of cloning human cells frightens part of the population opposed to cloning their own species, but it is a step forward in developing any type of cell line capable of treating cardiac, diabetic or neurodegenerative diseases,” adds the doctor.

According to the researchers themselves, the first diseases to be treated with these embryonic cells will be those caused by alterations in the mitochondrial DNA (energy-producing genes for the organism’s cells). In the longer term, the cells obtained from cloned embryos could cure defective organs such as the heart, since they could be converted into cardiac cells with the capacity to beat, or other pathologies such as diabetes and Parkinson’s disease. Another possible application of the technique, as the researchers explain, would be to use the embryonic cells to perform bone marrow transplants – although the process is more complex and requires other operations. All these uses, which are key to the future of regenerative medicine, would be viable thanks to the fact that the cells obtained are genetically identical to those of the patient, thus eliminating the risk of immune rejection. Furthermore, as Dr. Nadal points out, “cloning human cells would reduce the number of donors” needed to obtain the eggs from which the stem cells are extracted.

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This discovery, successful because the problems that previously prevented the correct development of human embryos after a cloning process have been identified, makes it possible to obtain stem cells with genetics similar to those of any healthy embryo. Therefore, according to the Oregon researchers, they have more potential for developing treatments than the reprogrammed cells discovered – also called Ips cells – by 2006 Nobel laureate Shinya Yamanaka.