Chinese Scientists Make Mice From Skin Cells

Chinese Scientists Make Mice From Skin Cells

Boston (DbTechNo) - Scientists from China have announced that they have figured out how to breed mice from the use of normal skin cells. The team was able to do this without using embryonic stem cells, which are the topic of many ethical debates.

Many people think that using embryonic stem cells for research is bad, because it effectively means killing the embryo.

The Chinese scientists used skin cells taken from animals, and managed to coax them into becoming embryonic stem cells. “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.

The researchers published their study and their findings in the journal Nature. “The implications of this are both enormously important and troublesome,” said Robert Lanza, a stem cell researcher at Advanced Cell Technology in Worcester, Mass. “It revives many of the issues raised by reproductive cloning.”

Seems like the Chinese have found a way to bypass to entire embryo debate. Finally we may see some good results coming out of this field that isnt shrouded in debate and controversy.

If they can grow a mouse out of its skin, can they grow a human out of its skin?

Seems like we are on the precipice of touching on truly groundbreaking findings and results.

Source : link

[edit on 23-7-2009 by phi1618]

reply to post by phi1618


"If they can grow a mouse out of its skin, can they grow a human out of its skin? "

Yep.

But that would be cloning. And pretty sure according the people who have issues with stem cells have issues with cloning, too.

Actually i was sorta thinking along the lines of how difficult it would be to clone a human, i mean a mouse wouldn't be as much work to clone as a human.

The article mentions the issues of reproductive cloning. But could they grow a human with this technique? im assuming reproductive cloning still requires a vessel.

[edit on 23-7-2009 by phi1618]

reply to post by ravenshadow13


I'm going to get a clone of myself, one day.

Apparently all it takes is a lot of money for a bribe, and a Chinese scientist.

Check and check. And worrrrrtthhhhh itttttttt

This is a fantastic achievement for amputees. Imagine being able to grow a lost arm. Or a new heart from a few cells of your existing heart. Body failing you? Just grow a new one.

If we can just master brain downloading, we could store our memories and brain in a database somewhere until our new body is ready!

reply to post by Avarus


That didnt even cross my mind, great idea perhaps a full brain transplant would be in order instead.

I dont trust chinese scientists until their claims have been tested by any western country. I'm not pretending to have the slightest inkling about cutting edge medicine, but that's all the more reason not to believe it...yet.

If this was proved to be true, than it would also likely fit in with what some abductees claim with scoop marks and seeing doubles or clones of themselves. A space traveling species would have also likely tackled many of these immortal issues. One in particular is an artifical form like an android. Once reaching a different planet, they would likely create or cross bread a suitable species for their intellect etc.

China may actually be doing many things other countries would consider wrong and yet, the U.S. has been shown to do this also for military reasons.

I wouldn't doubt the Chinese would want to clone a more perfect Chinese super soldier. The problem might be that they'll turn against them as well.

[edit on 23-7-2009 by aleon1018]

You know, humans and mice are equally as complex physically. Pretty much. Mice are much smaller, but have the same general organ systems that we do. It would still require duplicating blood, nerves, tissue, muscle, bone, a spinal cord, sensory organs, a brain, the whole bit. Dunno how intelligence would factor, probably just more neural pathways. Easy enough to do if you've already done a mouse brain.

So I mean, doing it for a whole mouse is really impressive. I bet it would work for humans.

[edit on 7/23/2009 by ravenshadow13]

reply to post by aleon1018


yea this could help us travel space, i mean we wouldn't even need to go near the speed of light if we could have immortality on our side. All we would need is a spiffy Virtual Reality and endless access to cloning tubes

And boom human intergalactic colonization.

Also this would lessen the effects of long term space flight, and problems that occur would not be present in the new clone. ( bone loss im assuming )

reply to post by phi1618


It's my thought that a species dna is linked with the planet they evlove on. So, I would imagine matching the same artifical gravity and or frequencies is also important.

I would also wonder if our species at one time was more advanced or similar as was what animals are here now, but had mutated due to earth changes that might be cyclical. ( or we were brought here)

I have a cymatic fossil I found on the beach near where I live and believe it may have been one of these mutations. I e-mailed a writer and sent him a photo and he thinks it's just calcium carbonate that was altered naturally. Even so, it still begs the question of mutations.



[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/51b557bd6418.jpg[/atsimg]

[edit on 23-7-2009 by aleon1018]

I suppose the issue of breakdown with the original DNA structure would become an issue after long term cloning.

Similar to what people say the greys suffer from.

although i guess it could be solved by cloning only the original ( or first tier ) specimen by storing large amounts of their DNA.

[edit on 23-7-2009 by phi1618]

reply to post by ravenshadow13


I was thinking more along the lines of cloning the brain, a sort of blank slate to load all the info into.