Researchers in U.S. for the first time have used stem cells from the hair follicles of mice for cloning purposes. According to them this procedure is much more efficient than the other existing procedures and could go a long way in different therapies.
This study was undertaken by a team from Laboratory of Mammalian Cell Biology and Development at Rockefeller University in New York City and was published in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.According to this finding, nuclear transfer can happen by using the nuclei of adult mouse hair follicle stem cells. Mice can be cloned from hybrid cells which is nothing but the nucleus of an adult skin stem cell and a nucleus-removed unfertilized mouse oocyte. It was also found in this study that rate of cloning efficiency in male mice was higher than their female counterparts. These hair follicle stem cells were more capable than the differentiated cells but not as good as embryonic cells.
Stem cells are basically primitive cells which are undifferentiated. They have the potency to differentiate into many other types of cells.
But this achievement currently holds good only in mice. There are no ethical issues regarding mice stem cells and procurement of such cells is generally trouble-free. Till date many animals have been cloned but the procedure still needs a lot of refining.
Source-Medindia
JYT
