Cell Differentiation No Barrier to Cloning

New resent test in mice shows that adult stem cells are actually worse than regular cells for the purpose of cloning. Moreover, the experiment delivered 2 cloned pups from the genetic material contained in fully formed white blood cells.
Xiangzhong Yang of the University of Connecticut and Tao Cheng of the University of Pittsburgh as well as a host of colleagues examined the cloning potential of three different types of cells: hematopoietic stem cells, progenitor cells and granulocytes. Each represents a different stage in the differentiation process of blood cells. The result was surprising-when they compared cells from the same animals they saw that differentiated cells gave a much higher efficeincy. This was very important because it is much easier to collect differintiated cells than stem cells. Both researchers think that differentiation opens the door for a lot of different studies.


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http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa025&articleID=000D0681-A3B8-151D-A3B883414B7F0000