Human therapeutic cloning: opportunities and challenges
Michael West
Advanced Cell Technology, Inc., Biotech 3, 1 Innovation Drive, Worcester, MA 01605, USA
Human Embyryonic Stem (ES) cells are unique in two important aspects.
First, they are totipotent (capable of differentiating into any somatic
cell type). Second, they are immortal germ-line cells and are,
therefore, able to make young cells in vitro for therapy in age-related
disease. An important problem to be resolved is how tolerance is to be
achieved in transplants made from ES-derived cells. We are pursuing two
approaches for tolerance: namely, somatic cell nuclear transfer (using
both human and nonhuman oocytes) and the generation of a bank of human
ES cells that are homozygous in the HLA region. The relative benefits
of these alternatives will be discussed as well as data relating to the
cellular lifespan of cells produced by these techniques, and their
potential utility in age-related disease including heart disease,
immunosenescence, and cancer.
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