Human cloning: can it be made safe?

@article{Rhind2003HumanCC,
  title={Human cloning: can it be made safe?},
  author={Susan M. Rhind and Jane E. Taylor and Paul A. De Sousa and Tim J. King and Michelle McGarry and Ian Wilmut},
  journal={Nature Reviews Genetics},
  year={2003},
  volume={4},
  pages={855-864}
}
There are continued claims of attempts to clone humans using nuclear transfer, despite the serious problems that have been encountered in cloning other mammals. It is known that epigenetic and genetic mechanisms are involved in clone failure, but we still do not know exactly how. Human reproductive cloning is unethical, but the production of cells from cloned embryos could offer many potential benefits. So, can human cloning be made safe? 
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Future and applications of cloning.

It is clear that cloning using SCNT has a place and purpose in the future of research and animal breeding and human medicine also would benefit from future use of SCNT because it would allow the production of patient-specific embryonic stem cells.

The Future of Human Cloning: can Human Embryos Resulting from Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfers (SCNT) be used to Treat Human Infertility?

Cl cloning efficiency can be influenced by cellcycle heterogeneity of the cultured somatic cells and may be improved by increasing cell-cycle uniformity for somatic donor cells used in SCNT.

Embryo biotechnology in reproductive medicine

Mammalian embryo biotechnology with multiple applications in reproductive and therapeutic medicine has been summarized in this review article and predictive progress and prognostic views for human embryos biotechnology and patients' benefits are outlined for the near future.

ES cells derived from cloned and fertilized blastocysts are transcriptionally and functionally indistinguishable.

The findings support the notion that ES cell lines derived from cloned or fertilized blastocysts have an identical therapeutic potential, and indicate that NT-ES cell derivation rigorously selects for those immortal cells that have erased the "epigenetic memory" of the donor nucleus and, thus, become functionally equivalent.

Can human embryos resulting from Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfers (SCNT) be used to treat human infertility? future implications in Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART)

A novel approach using two different types of adult human cells from female patients enrolled in IVF programs and fibroblast cells from infertile male patients for SCNT into enucleated bovine oocytes to test and compare the efficiency of different human adult somatic cells for their ability to promote embryonic development via interspecies SCNT.

Intra-strain polymorphisms are detected but no genomic alteration is found in cloned mice.

Expression of imprinted genes is aberrant in deceased newborn cloned calves and relatively normal in surviving adult clones

Data showed disruptions of expression of imprinted genes in bovine clones, which is possibly due to incomplete reprogramming of donor cell nuclei during nuclear transfer, and these abnormalities may be associated with the high neonatal mortality in cloned animals.

Chromatin remodelling and epigenetic features of germ cells

Because stable genetic transmission to future generations is essential for life, understanding the control of these processes has far-reaching implications for human health and reproduction.

Embryonic stem cells derived from somatic cloned and fertilized blastocysts are post‐transcriptionally indistinguishable: A MicroRNA and protein profile comparison

The results demonstrate that the ES cell lines derived from cloned and fertilized mouse blastocysts have highly similar microRNA and protein expression profiles, consistent with their similar developmental potentials and transcriptional profiles.

Why the apparent haste to clone humans?

  • N. Cobbe
  • Medicine
    Journal of Medical Ethics
  • 2006
The recent desperation to clone human embryos may be seriously undermining accepted ethical principles of medical research, with potentially profound wider consequences
...

References

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The development of nuclear-transfer techniques using cultured somatic cells allows animals to be produced without involving germline cells. This enables us to examine the importance of the repair of…

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