Human embryo cloned, U.S. scientist group says

Associated Press

BOSTON — A group of scientists in Massachusetts claimed today they had cloned the first early human embryo, a step toward providing genetically matched replacement cells for patients with a wide range of diseases.

The scientists at Advanced Cell Technology, in Worcester, Mass., say they have no immediate interest in transplanting such early embryos into a woman’s womb to give birth to a cloned human being.

Several states, including California, have banned human cloning. Congress is considering such a ban.

"These are exciting preliminary results," said Dr. Robert Lanza, one of the researchers at Advanced Cell Technology. "This work sets the stage for human therapeutic cloning as a potentially limitless source of immune-compatible cells for tissue engineering and transplantation medicine."

In findings published today by The Journal of Regenerative Medicine and described online in Scientific American, the scientists said they had grown a six-cell human embryo.

They said they created the early embryo by injecting a very small cell with its genetic material into a woman’s donated egg. In such cloning, the injected DNA often comes from a skin cell, but the researchers this time used a cumulus cell, which nurtures a developing egg.

In a separate experiment, the scientists showed they could push the development of human egg cells even further with a technique known as parthenogenesis.

They exposed 22 egg cells to chemicals that changed the concentration of electrically charged ions within them. Six eggs reprogrammed themselves to develop into early embryos known as blastocysts, which contain dozens of cells.

The scientists described the work as preliminary. Neither experiment has yet produced the coveted stem cells that grow inside an embryo and differentiate into other body tissues.

But the researchers described the work as an important step toward producing these stem cells to generate replacement cells as treatments for diabetes, heart disease, spinal injuries, and many other ailments.

Asked about the research on "Fox News Sunday," Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said while he only had sketchy details, he was worried about reproductive cloning. He called the reports "disconcerting."

"I think it’s going in the wrong direction," he said.

On NBC’s "Meet the Press," Sen. Richard Shelby, D-Ala., said, "I believe it will be perhaps a big debate, but at the end of the day I don’t believe that we’re going to let the cloning of human embryos go on."

Added Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.: "I find it very, very troubling."

Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., told CNN’s "Late Edition" that "the Senate should be deliberative."

"We really ought to take it on the basis of much more thorough understanding than this first report," he said.

Anti-abortion religious groups immediately spoke out against the procedure.

"We’re moving toward artificially creating human embryos solely to mine them for spare parts — solely to destroy them for their cells," said Richard Doerflinger, deputy director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities.

"If they read any embryology textbook, they will find that the human embryo is simply the first stage in the development of any human being."

But Michael West, ACT’s CEO, speaking on "Meet the Press," disagreed with that interpretation.

"We’re not talking about little embryos with hands and feet. We’re talking about a cluster of cells, small, far smaller than the head of a pen, with no body cells of any kind," he said. "In fact, the embryo hasn’t even decided if it’s going to become one person or two persons. It’s that undifferentiated at that point."