Differentiated cells are more efficient than adult stem cells for cloning by somatic cell nuclear transfer

• Published in: Nature genetics Vol. 38; no. 11; pp. 1323 - 1328
• Main Authors: Yang, Xiangzhong, Cheng, Tao, Sung, Li-Ying, Gao, Shaorong, Shen, Hongmei, Yu, Hui, Song, Yifang, Smith, Sadie L, Chang, Ching-Chien, Inoue, Kimiko, Kuo, Lynn, Lian, Jin, Li, Ao, Tian, X Cindy, Tuck, David P, Weissman, Sherman M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group 01-11-2006
• Subjects: Adult Stem Cells - cytology; Adult Stem Cells - physiology; Animals; Biological and medical sciences; Cell Differentiation - physiology; Cloning; Cloning, Organism - methods; Efficiency; Embryo, Mammalian - cytology; Embryos; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Gene Expression Profiling; Genetic aspects; Genetics of eukaryotes. Biological and molecular evolution; Granulocytes - cytology; Granulocytes - physiology; Hematopoietic Stem Cells - cytology; Hematopoietic Stem Cells - metabolism; Hypothesis testing; Male; Mammals; Methods; Mice; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Mice, Inbred DBA; Models, Biological; Nuclear transfer (Cloning); Nuclear Transfer Techniques; Physiological aspects; Pregnancy; Stem cells; Stem Cells - cytology; Stem Cells - physiology; United States; Human; Nuclear transfer; Adult; Somatic cell; Molecular cloning; Stem cell
• ISSN: 1061-4036; 1546-1718
• DOI: 10.1038/ng1895

Since the creation of Dolly via somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), more than a dozen species of mammals have been cloned using this technology. One hypothesis for the limited success of cloning via SCNT (1%-5%) is that the clones are likely to be derived from adult stem cells. Support for this hypothesis comes from the findings that the reproductive cloning efficiency for embryonic stem cells is five to ten times higher than that for somatic cells as donors and that cloned pups cannot be produced directly from cloned embryos derived from differentiated B and T cells or neuronal cells. The question remains as to whether SCNT-derived animal clones can be derived from truly differentiated somatic cells. We tested this hypothesis with mouse hematopoietic cells at different differentiation stages: hematopoietic stem cells, progenitor cells and granulocytes. We found that cloning efficiency increases over the differentiation hierarchy, and terminally differentiated postmitotic granulocytes yield cloned pups with the greatest cloning efficiency.