Source: Nature
Date: 21 March 2008
Summary:
Nature reports researchers have treated Parkinson's disease in mice using embryonic stem cells derived from therapeutic cloning:
"Researchers have used therapeutic cloning to transform a mouse's tail cells into ones that can treat it for disease. The study helps advance the prospect of creating cell lines perfectly matched to human patients. ... "The process is laborious and technically challenging. Previous work had shown that dopamine-producing cells formed from embryonic stem cells could be transplanted into mice with a model of Parkinson’s disease. The transplants successfully relieved symptoms, but in that case the researchers derived the stem cell line from a different (but genetically related) donor, not from the mouse that was being treated. The new study is the first to take cells from a mouse, transform them through therapeutic cloning into a new cell line, and use this to treat the original donor."
