Human embryonic stem cells created from adult tissue for first time

The cells, made with cloning technique behind Dolly the sheep, have the potential to regenerate damaged organs and tissues

The Guardian, Ian Sample, science correspondent, Wednesday 15 May 2013

A human egg before nuclear extraction and fusion with a skin cell. The
 resulting embryonic stem cells were genetically identical to the skin
donor. Photograph: Oregon Health & Science University

Scientists have used the cloning technique that led to Dolly the sheep to turn human skin into embryonic stem cells – which can make any tissue in the body.

The US team overcame technical problems that had frustrated researchers for more than a decade to create batches of the body's master cells from donated skin.

The work will spark fresh interest in the use of cloning in medical research, and reignite the controversy over a procedure that demands a supply of human eggs, and the creation and destruction of early stage embryos. The US group employed the technique to make embryonic stem cells that were genetically matched to individuals. Such cells could be used to study diseases in exquisite detail, and regenerate damaged organs and tissues.

"Our finding offers new ways of generating stem cells for patients with dysfunctional or damaged tissues and organs," said Shoukhrat Mitalipov at Oregon Health and Science University. "Such stem cells can regenerate and replace those damaged cells and tissues and alleviate diseases that affect millions of people."

Dolly was born in 1996 after researchers led by Sir Ian Wilmut in Edinburgh created an embryo by fusing a cell from a sheep's udder with an egg that had had its nucleus removed. The embryo was a clone – genetically identical to the adult sheep the udder cell came from.

Since Dolly's arrival teams of scientists have tried to use cloning to make early-stage embryos, which contain embryonic stem cells. To do so they fuse a skin cell and an egg with its nucleus removed, then apply an electric shock to make the resulting cell grow. The process has worked in some animals, but until now had failed in humans.

Hopes that cloning might usher in a new era of medicine were dealt a major blow after the South Korean stem cell researcher, Woo-suk Hwang, claimed in 2005 to have perfected the process and made fresh tissue from patients' skin. A year later Hwang was charged with embezzlement and illegally buying human eggs after it emerged that his results had been faked in one of the greatest scandals in modern science.

Writing in the journal Cell, researchers led by Mitalipov describe how they set about solving problems in the cloning process. They overcame one glitch – the premature development of the cloned embryo – by adding caffeine to their dishes. The revamped procedure dramatically improved the efficiency of cloning, and Mitalipov's team harvested at least one batch of embryonic stem cells for every egg donor. Tests on the cells found they could grow into any body tissue.

"This is an important advance because it is feasible – one embryonic stem cell line was generated from just two eggs," said

Christopher Shaw, professor of neurology at King's College London. "Like many good experiments caffeine has made an invaluable contribution."

Interest in therapeutic cloning had waned among many researchers after the invention of a new technique that allowed scientists to reprogram skin cells into a more embryonic form. Unlike cloning, the procedure did not require human eggs, or the creation of early-stage embryos. Last year, Sir John Gurdon of Cambridge University, and Shinya Yamanaka at Kyoto University, shared the Nobel prize for pioneering so-called induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells.

Though iPS cells hold great promise, they carry mutations and other abnormalities that might rule them out for medical therapies. Mitalipov's work resurrects cloning as a means of making tool for creating stem cells, and means that iPS cells can now be compared directly with embryonic stem cells to see if the differences matter.

Robin Lovell-Badge, head of developmental genetics at the MRC National Institute for Medical Research, said the work "brings the topic of therapeutic cloning in humans back into the realm of good science rather than controversy".

In Britain and elsewhere, it is illegal to implant a cloned embryo into a woman's womb, and studies in animals show that most cloned embryos are aborted or suffer birth defects.

"It is an unsafe procedure in animals and it will similarly be an unsafe procedure in humans. For this reason alone it should not be attempted," said Lovell-Badge. "We are not just a product of our DNA, which is the only thing that is copied in cloning. Nurture and environment are at least as important in determining who we are, therefore cloning cannot be used to bring back a loved one."

Related Articles:

Japan researchers close in on stem cell trial

Cell scientists aim to rebuild hearts with reprogrammed tissue

Japan team create liver from stem cells: report

Stem cells being made from blood

Life created from eggs made from skin cells

"The Quantum Factor" – Apr 10, 2011 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Galaxies, Universe, Intelligent design, Benevolent design, Aliens, Nikola Tesla (Quantum energy), Inter-Planetary Travel, DNA, Genes, Stem Cells, Cells, Rejuvenation, Shift of Human Consciousness, Spontaneous Remission, Religion, Dictators, Africa, China, Nuclear Power, Sustainable Development, Animals, Global Unity.. etc.) - (Text Version)

"..... Cell Division - a Static process ? 

Let me take you to the cellular division process. We've said this before, but you need to hear this to understand how it works. A cell is ready to divide. The Human body is designed to rejuvenate... all tissue. You've been told that there's some tissue that does not rejuvenate, but that is incorrect. It all rejuvenates at different speeds at different times and in different ways. It rejuvenates. So now you know that the Human body is designed to live a long time. Unfortunately, the energy that you have created on this planet and what you've gone through, has beat it up. You don't live much more than 80 years. That was not the design.

The Biblical personalities were sometimes prophets and sometimes masters and sometimes just there... and lived for hundreds of years. Did they really? Or perhaps this is that just a metaphor? Did they get that right in the Bible without a error in transcription? I'm going to tell you the truth. It's very accurate. Thousands of years ago you lived a very long time, Lemurian. If you knew your lifespan, you'd gasp. But not anymore. Instructions have been given over time to DNA, literally, by the energy of the planet... en energy that you have created through consciousness.

A cell divides. Right before it divides, it needs the blueprint to clone itself. The blueprint is available from the stem cell. The stem cell gets its information from the quantum part of the DNA, which has never changed since you were born. It's remained static, since nothing has ever changed it... and the fact that you don't believe it's changeable and have just accepted aging. There's not a conscious effort to do anything with it, and it just lays there like it always did.

The diving cell "talks" to the stem cell and says, "Do the same thing you always did? Change anything?" And the stem cell talks to the cell that is dividing, saying, "Make another one just the same." Then you rejuvenate just like the last one, accepting everything you received when you were born. ..."

"Recalibration of Knowledge" – Jan 14, 2012 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Channelling, God-Creator, Benevolent Design, New Energy, Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Reincarnation, Gaia, Old Energies (Africa,Terrorists, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela ... ), Weather, Rejuvenation, Akash, Nicolas Tesla / Einstein, Cold Fusion, Magnetics, Lemuria, Atomic Structure (Electrons, Particles, Polarity, Self Balancing, Magnetism, Higgs Boson), Entanglement, "Life is necessary for a Universe to exist and not the other way around", DNA, Humans (Baby getting ready, First Breath, Stem Cells, Embryonic Stem Cells, Rejuvenation), Global Unity, ... etc.) - (Text Version)

”… There are several things that are going to happen in mainstream science. First, you're going to find some secrets of DNA and they're going to be embryonic. Start watching scientists discover the embryonic cells and the magic within them. You already know that unusual stem cells exist in the placenta. You also know that the pre-programmed adult stem cells are still there in the body. But what about the DNA of the unborn? (Intellectuals, please keep reading, for to stop now will create unrest.) Second, your work today Yawee, will represent "the perfect template" without using what you did in Lemuria. That's why you're the Human who will do this. It's an extension of why you came here, and is perfect for 2012 and beyond.

These embryonic cells of the unborn are untouchable by society, and they might as well be on Mars, for no science is going to try to use these cells in a 3D manner, which is all you know how to do at this point. If they try, it won't work anyway. There are quantum processes you are learning about that are not only non-invasive, but actually helpful and that can transfer attributes from one biological cell to another and from one Human to another. Think "wireless" [Kryon human again]. What you thought would take wires over 1,000 miles long is now done with satellites. It's an analogy that shows you that you are moving into totally new understandings of the transfer of energy. Let's discuss the mother in that temple for a moment. …”


"... I want to define life for you - not biological life, but spiritual life. So for all those intellectuals, just hold on, for many won't like this. Spiritual life, as measured by Spirit, is when a Human has free choice. When is that? It's when they take their first breath. Not in utero. There will be those who will say, "That's wrong, that's wrong. The soul in the woman's body is alive!" Just wait. I'm talking about spiritually. That which Spirit sees, and it's when you come from the other side of the veil and take your first breath.

A child with the mother has no free choice. That child is linked to the choice of the mother until it is born. It is, indeed, a soul in preparation for free choice, and there are many attributes that are spiritual that we have discussed before about how that soul reacts. But now I'm discussing life with polarity [duality], free choice.

But let's discuss that "child inside" for a moment, for there is a process I want you to know about. I want to talk about 240 days into the pregnancy. At about that time, the child has perfect DNA. It hasn't taken its first breath. The DNA hasn't measured the energy of the planet yet, since it is contained. Did you realize that? Inside the womb is a perfect child. The child's DNA has all the attributes of the Akash and also the parent, but it's different in a way you have not been told. The DNA is 100% as designed.

The quantum instructions within the DNA are all talking to the biology of the child,, getting ready for the first breath. ..."