Lab-grown stem cells generate fertile live mice
Chinese researchers have managed to create live mice from their own skin cells, Reuters reports. This was accomplished using induced pluripotent stem cells (IPS cells for short): skin cells that have been reprogrammed to act like embryonic stem cells, which can give rise to all types of tissue in the body. The experiment means it’s theoretically possible to clone someone using skin cells, although the experts emphasize such use would not be ethical. “We are confident that tremendous good can come from demonstrating the versatility of reprogrammed cells in mice, and this research will be used to … understand the root causes of disease and lead to viable treatments and cures of human afflictions,” said Fanyi Zeng of the Shanghai Institute of Medical Genetics at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. In the study, Chinese scientists created 37 stem cell lines, and of them, generated three live births. The longest-living one lived to be nine months old, and the mice went on to create more than 100 second-generation, and more than 100 third-generation mice.