Scientists in Japan cloned a mouse from a drop of blood. Moving blood cells taken from the tail of the mouse donor were used to create the clone, said researchers from the center Ricken Bioresources. Some time ago the same scientists have created nearly 600 exact genetic copies of a mouse.
Mice were cloned from different sources of donor cells, including white blood cells of the lymph nodes, bone marrow and liver. Japanese researchers studied whether the moving blood cells can be used for cloning. Their goal was to find an easy source of donor cells for cloning valuable scientifically types of laboratory mice.
Scientists led by Atsuo Ogura of Bioresources Rikes center in Tsukuba, blood taken from the tail of a mouse donor, isolated white blood cells and used kernel cloning experiments using the same technique as for the cloning of Dolly the sheep in Edinburgh.
The process, known as somatic cell nuclear transfer involving transfer of the nucleus from a cell in the adult body as blood cells or skin unfertilized egg, which was removed the nucleus. Scientists, whose research was published in the journal Biology of Reproduction, said that it shows for the first time that mice can be cloned using the nucleus of peripheral blood cells.
"These cells can be used to clone immediately after isolation, without requiring euthanasia of donor" complemented researchers.