As I was browsing articles on Scientific American, there was an article that caught my particular attention. With our recent study on the topic of stem cells, Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells, and cloning, I found the article “ Healthy Baby Mice Produced from Mouse Mom’s Skin Cells” incredibly relevant.
Karen Weintraub, the author of the article, wrote about the research that Katsuhiko Hayashi, a stem cell biologist at Kyushu University in Japan, is doing. Hayashi’s “research started instead with a skin cell from a mouse’s tail and transformed it into egg cells, then matured those eggs in a laboratory dish and finally fertilized them and implanted them into a female mouse”. In our class, we learned of a few different methods of cloning. Most notably, we learned about Dolly the sheep who was cloned using a mammary cell of a Finn Dorsett sheep that was placed into an enucleated egg of a Scottish blackface ewe. The egg was then stimulated by electricity to stimulate cell division. Unlike Dolly, however, Hayashi’s research takes regular somatic cells and transforms them into germline cells via induced pluripotent stem cells.
In order to accomplish the task of transforming a stem cell into a egg cell, there was a lot research done in order to create and design a setting in which this could be done. Like Dolly, however, “only 1 percent of the cells led to live births, the animals that were born alive were healthy, fertile, and lived a normal lifespan”, says Katsuhiko Hayashi. There is still a lot of time and research that needs to be done before this process more efficiently. Although they have had success in lab mice, this type of experimenting in humans seems to be decades away.
If this process was able to be done effectively in humans, Karen Weintraub seems to speculate that this procedure could be used to help “women who lack eggs, or for men without sperm, to get replacement cells made from their own skin. If that becomes possible it could extend the age of human fertility by decades, help preserve endangered animal species and someday perhaps allow same-sex couples to have their own genetic children”.
For now, researchers are using the knowledge and technology they have to do research on mice, but , hopefully, they are looking forward to getting a successful trial in a non-human primate . Research teams are able to do their experiments on mice now, because there aren’t as many risks associated with them as a subject. Doing this type of research, at such an early stage, on humans might lead to abnormal or seriously ill offspring. Hayashi , though, seems hopeful that this type of reproduction might be possible in humans within the next two decades.
RT
Article source: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/healthy-baby-mice-produced-from-mouse-mom-s-skin-cells/
While the success rate for these mice is very low and the results varied i think that this is an incredibly interesting field of study. As you mentioned in class we have been learning about Dolly the sheep and how she was cloned from her parent and how she was effected overtime by diseases that would usually only effect older sheep. I believe it was mentioned at some point that people theorize that this is because of the original cells "age" effected the cloned daughter Dolly. I'm curious to see how in the next few years this research develope's more.
ReplyDelete-Jacob C
Very interesting topic because in class we learned about cloning and Dolly the sheep who was cloned form adult cells. It is crazy to think that the scientist were abel to turn skin cells into a baby mouse. That sentence even sounds like magic. But this in not magic, with a lot of trial and error and research they made the impossible possible. Even though the success rates are not very good, with more time and research they should rise. Also, I wonder if hoe they mice are doing. Are they alive and healthy or did they die early like Dolly the sheep.
ReplyDeleteJH
In this study (like any study that has to do with genetics) we definitely run into some ethical issues. Do you think it is okay to "play God" in that way of transforming cells to create life? KH
ReplyDeleteI think that phrase 'play God' carries a lot of negative connotations. I don't think that God is a character that some scientist in a laboratory can imitate because he mixed a few cells together in interesting ways.
DeleteAdditionally, I am curious about the validity of this article. How do we know this actually happened?
I think that the fact that they published this article in an accredited publication ( that was also approved by our amazing professor, Dr. G ) means that this experiment and research actually happened.
DeleteR.T.
I think this is interesting. However, I do have a problem. Wide spread cloning of humans would limit genetic diversity and make wide spread disease possible. Would same sex couples be able to have their own genetic children? The stem cells taken from each partner would be diploid not haploid cells.
ReplyDeleteT Anderson
that was an interesting read. I wonder if cloning would increase how selfish people are becoming. by creating the option to control the offspring produced. personally I feel like that wont work for our world. it will decreases our variation and lower our changes of evolution in the future.
ReplyDeleteMy question is, how do people just say "lets make mice from a mouse's skin cells?" Science is seriously so interesting a beautiful. I think that even though it was an if'y experiment, it freakin' worked, and I am sure with more tests done they can really do good with this new finding.
ReplyDeleteA.G
The idea of cloning really freaks me out and it always has but it's good to experiment with it because good findings can come from it like this article on the mice and the skin cells! Good post!
ReplyDelete-B.N.K.