AP, LA Times, Wash Post, WSJournal, etc: From skin cells to stem cells to fully formed baby mice. Who needs embryonic stem cells now?
In Nature and in Cell Publishing’s journal Stem Cell comes attention-grabbing news this week that teams in China have not only made what look like pluripotent stem cells from mature skin cells – which has been done before - but went and turned some of them into embryos, put them in mouse uteruses, and came up with complete mice. If so, that’s pretty good proof of their pluripotency. The Wall Street Journal‘s Gautam Naik is not alone in pointing out the up and down side of this news. It means less reliance on “controversial laboratory techniques” by which he, farther down, explains as the need for embryos to supply the stem cells. On the other hand, if it proves fairly reliable this could “make it easier to create human clones and babies with specific genetic traits.
The image, from Nature, shows Xiao Xiao (“shau shau”), which means tiny, and is the first baby mouse created from reprogrammed skin cells.
Other Stories:
- Xinhua/ChinaView – Mu Xuequan : Chinese scientists create live mice from skin cells;
- Washington Post – Rob Stein: Researchers May Have Found Equivalent of Embryonic Stem Cells ; Nicely complete, including news that the dozens of first generation mice cloned from skin cells have also produced a second generation of seemingly normal mice. He also report insistence by the Chinese researchers that embryonic stem cells remind vital laboratory needs during further research and validation that the induced pluripotent cells are fully equivalent to embryonic ones. “The culture wars are not over,” one source tells him.
- ABC Science (Australia): Fertile live mice grown from skin cells ;
- Wired (blog) Brandon Keim: Living, Breeding Mice Grown From Skin Cells ;
- Popular Science – Jeremy Hsu: Scientists Create Mice from Reprogrammed Skin Cells ;
- Los Angeles Times – Thomas H. Maugh II: Stem cell feat revives ethics debate on human cloning ; Pithy quote – “We are fast forwarding to the era of designer babies…we have gone from science fiction to reality.” Here’s another, from the same source: “If you have a piece of skin from anybody – Albert Einstein, Marilyn Monroe, Michael Jackson – you could create a child.” Wow. He immediately follows with one of the Chinese researchers saying she hopes ethical boundaries stop any such thing.
Grist for the Mill: Cell Press Release ;
-CP
