Weekly reads: freeze-dried cloning, FDA signals, stem cell escapees

Cloning is one of those topics that both fascinates and kind of scares people, especially the idea of duplicating people.

I regularly cover the topic here on The Niche because stem cell technologies are involved. Also, one form of the process sometimes called “therapeutic cloning” involves embryonic stem cells.

Duplicating mammals has now long been a reality and similar methods could eventually be tried in people.

In fact, as technology has advanced, human cloning has become more possible, so we’ll start with clone research but this time done in mice. It still has broader implications.

Cloning a new way

Healthy cloned offspring derived from freeze-dried somatic cells, Nat Comm. This comes from the Teruhiko Wakayama group.

One of the most striking things about this new paper is that some of the somatic cells or nuclei used had seemed essentially dead or damaged, but still apparently worked to clone new mice.

Why is this important?

Many folks interested in human cloning and perhaps even cloning of pets, might have to turn to preserved somatic cells such as skin biopsies or blood samples to attempt cloning. Teru’s new work suggests even frozen samples might work.

More recommended reads

• Stem cells: Nefarious escape artists of a rare disease, ASBMB Today. This reminded me of the recent research on how skin stem cells escaping the epidermal niche in the hair bulb could have a role in baldness.

• FDA Getting Tougher on Birth Tissue Companies, MedPage Today. Kristina Fiore writes about a striking change in language used in an FDA warning letter recently, first noted by Dr. Chris Centeno of the Regenexx clinics on his blog. Seems like more bad news for the birth-related cell manufacturers who supply sketchy clinics.  Still there are hundreds of clinics selling this perinatal stuff still.

• Intestine-enriched apolipoprotein borthologs are required for stem cell progeny differentiation and regeneration in planarians, Nat Comm.

• Lymphatics act as a signaling hub to regulate intestinal stem cell activity, Cell Stem Cell.

• An automated do-it-yourself system for dynamic stem cell and organoid culture in standard multi-well plates, Cell Rep Methods.
• The role of CDK8 in mesenchymal stem cells in controlling osteoclastogenesis and bone homeostasis, Stem Cell Reports.
• Transient DUX4expression in human embryonic stem cells induces blastomere-like expression program that is marked by SLC34A2, Stem Cell Reports.
• Primary cilia control translation and the cell cycle in medulloblastoma, G&D.