Cloned Stem Cells Treat Parkinson's in Mice, Researchers Claim

A group of scientists claim that they have treated Parkinson's disease in mice by using cloned embryonic stem cells.

The researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City said they used somatic-cell nuclear transfer , also known as "therapeutic cloning," in creating a customized treatment for Parkinson's in mice, according to an announcement released Sunday by the organization.

In their research, the scientists used skin cells from the tail of mice to generate dopamine brain cells, the neurons that are found missing in victims of Parkinson's disease.

When the so-called dopamine brain cells were inserted into the mice which provided the initial cells, the subjects showed neurological improvement, according to the study's results, which were published in the March 23 online edition of the journal Nature Medicine.

However, mice that received brain cells not derived from their own skins cells did not recover.

This is the first time that researchers have used "therapeutic cloning" to treat disease in the same subjects from whom the initial cells were derived," the cancer center stated in the news release.

"It demonstrated what we suspected all along – that genetically matched tissue works better," Viviane Tabar, one of the study's researchers, told Reuters.

"When you give the other type of tissue, non-autologous tissue, you get more inflammation than we anticipated. This is in a lab animal where we expect it to be tolerant. Normally when you do this in mice, you don't give matched cells," she added.

Taber described the process as "incredibly hard."

Scientists have noted that the treatment has only been applied to mice and not humans.

"Therapeutic cloning" is controversial because it involves creating an embryo for the purpose of harvesting its stem cells. Stem cells are prized as the master cells of the body with the potential to develop into other cells and tissue.

Pro-life groups, who consider harvesting tantamount to destroying human life, say the application of the cloning technique in humans would undermine the sanctity of human life.

They maintain that embryonic stem cell research has yet to produce a single cure or treatment for degenerative diseases and implore scientists to consider more promising stem cell research, including adult stem cell research.

Last year, scientists in Japan said they were able to produce cells with embryonic-like qualities by re-programming the genes in adult skins cells.

Although pro-life groups originally hailed the breakthrough technique as the answer to their ethical concerns in stem cell research, some later objected to the use of embryonic stem cells in the re-programming process.

Tabar said in the Reuters report that her team will also attempt apply these so-called induced pluripotent stem cells to treat mice in the method described in the study.