Embryo cloning must start now to assure future cures

Main Category: Diabetes
Article Date: 06 Aug 2004 - 9:00 PDT


Theraputic cloning of human embryos must start now because new stem-cell treatments for conditions such as diabetes and Parkinson's disease are still many years away, according to a leading expert on the technology.

Dr Stephen Minger, the director of the Stem Cell Laboratory at King's College London, called for the UK to develop a comprehensive programme to clone human embryos from which stem cells can be harvested for new therapies.

He told the BioScience 2004 conference: "It is vital that we do not delay learning how to perform cell nuclear replacement in human cells, the technique required for therapeutic cloning, because new stem-cell treatments for diabetes and Parkinson's are still many years away. It is going to take us just as long to figure out how to do this safely and reproducibly."

Cell nuclear replacement (CNR) involves removing the nucleus of a human donor egg, replacing it with the genetic material from the nucleus of an easily obtainable cell, such as skin, heart or nerve from the patient, and stimulating this cell to then divide.

Once a group of cells has been formed, stem cells can be extracted a few days later.

So far a South Korean research team is the only group in the world to have successfully cloned a human embryo, but scientists do not yet know whether this can be replicated and whether the stem cells derived from such an embryo could possibly function therapeutically.

Dr Minger is adamant that cloning human embryos for therapeutic purposes is not "the slippery slope" to creating designer babies.

He said: "There is a total ban in the UK and most of the rest of the world on reproductive cloning. Reproductive cloning must not be confused with therapeutic cloning."

At present, people with Type 1 diabetes have to inject themselves with insulin every day. A goal of therapeutic cloning is to generate an embryonic stem cell line that is genetically identical to the person for whom the new insulin cells would be created.

Success would reduce the risk of rejection and the need for toxic immunosuppressants, which leave the body open to attack from other viruses and diseases.

However, even if the technique of CNR is perfected, the result is still just a line of human embryonic stem cells.

Dr Minger said: "Cloning embryos in itself does not provide a therapy, so now is the time to start to work out how to differentiate these cells into specific types. Then we have to carry out safety tests before attempting to treat people for spinal injury, or diseases like Parkinson's, stroke or diabetes."

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