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Posted on Jan 29, 2004, 10 a.m.
By Bill Freeman
British researchers have discovered more evidence to suggest that the cloning process damages the genetic mechanisms that enable the clone to develop normally. Embryos produce signals that direct its cells to develop normally, however Professor Wolf Reik and colleagues at the Babraham Institute, a charitable institution based in Cambridge, found that the signals produced by cloned embryos are abnormal.
British researchers have discovered more evidence to suggest that the cloning process damages the genetic mechanisms that enable the clone to develop normally. Embryos produce signals that direct its cells to develop normally, however Professor Wolf Reik and colleagues at the Babraham Institute, a charitable institution based in Cambridge, found that the signals produced by cloned embryos are abnormal. In the majority of cases, these abnormal signals prevent the clone from developing at all. The discovery explains why it takes hundreds of attempts to produce a living clone, however it also has implications for the long-term health of clones that do survive and appear normal at birth. Many scientists are becoming concerned that cloned animals that are apparently healthy at birth may be harbouring genetic flaws leaving them prone to certain diseases and premature death. The announcement was made in the same week that Italian researchers revealed that they had cloned the world’s first cloned horse.
SOURCE/REFERENCE: Reported by www.bbc.co.uk on the 7th August 2003.
