ARTICLE: Chinese Team Reprogrammes Human Cells Using Rabbit Eggs

[Murray Charters <mcharters@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Financial Times, UK
Thursday Aug 14 2003

Chinese team reprogrammes human cells using rabbit eggs

By Clive Cookson, Science Editor

Stem cell research takes another controversial step forward today, with a 
report that biologists in China have
"reprogrammed" human cells by fusing them with rabbit eggs.

The resulting hybrid is a source of human embryonic stem cells that could grow 
into a wide variety of tissues.

The Chinese team, led by Huizhen Sheng of Shanghai Second Medical University, 
said its fusion method of reprogramming
adult human cells to assume an embryonic state could be an alternative to 
producing cells directly from human embryos.

Embryonic stem cells are seen by many scientists as the basis of treatments for 
many debilitating illnesses, from
diabetes to Parkinson's disease. The research is published in the Chinese 
journal Cell Research Online - a day after
scientists in the UK announced they had grown stem cells for the first time 
from spare human embryos left over from
fertility treatment.

Both Britain and China are aiming to be world leaders in stem cell research.

But the journal Nature, which carries news of the Chinese research today, says 
some independent scientists doubt
whether the Chinese "derived" cells can grow indefinitely in culture as 
effectively as human embryonic stem cells.

The fused human-rabbit cells were made by transfering the nuclei of adult human 
cells into rabbit eggs that had been
emptied of their genetic material.

Although they cannot grow like a conventional embryo, the news is bound to 
ignite debate about the ethics of cross-
species experiments.

Robin Lovell-Badge, head of genetics at the National Institute for Medical 
Research, said he was impressed by the
Chinese research. "This is the first paper to show convincingly that you can 
get human reprogramming," he said.

Previous experiments have only generated animal stem cell lines from fused 
cells. Dr Sheng claims to have reprogrammed
cells from the foreskin of adult men and the skin of a 60-year-old woman.

As well as doubts about the rabbit-human hybrid cells' growth, some biologists 
are sceptical about whether these stem
cells will be stable enough to be an alternative to more conventionally derived 
human embryonic stem cells.

Reference:

Cell Research Online (CRO)


SOURCE: Financial Times, UK


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