In a new study publishing in the June 21 issue of Current Biology, researchers at the RIKEN Bioresource Center and the RIKEN Research Center for Allergy and Immunology in Japan report the birth of offspring after direct nuclear transfer from natural killer T (NKT) cells, a unique lymphocyte cell population. The cloned pups, as well as their placentas, possess the rearranged T cell receptor (TCR) genomic loci that are specific for NKT cells, positively demonstrating that the cloned animals and their placentas were derived from fully differentiated cells. The results provide the evidence that terminally differentiated cell nuclei are competent to support the development of embryos as well as placentas after conventional, one-step nuclear transfer. The findings also necessitate a revision of prevailing ideas about the genomic plasticity of differentiated somatic cells.
The researchers include Kimiko Inoue, Narumi Ogonuki, Shinichi Noda, Hiroyuki Miyoshi, Hiromi Miki, and Atsuo Ogura of the RIKEN Bioresource Center; and Hiroshi Wakao, Ken-ichiro Seino, Rika Nambu-Wakao, Haruhiko Koseki, and Masaru Taniguchi of the RIKEN Research Center for Allergy and Immunology. This research was supported by grants from the Ministry of Education; the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare; the Japan Science and Technology Agency; and the Human Science Foundation (all Japanese).
Inoue, K., Wakao, H., Ogonuki, N., Miki, H., Seino, K.-i., Nambu-Wakao, R., Noda, Hiroyuki Miyoshi, S., Koseki, H., Taniguchi, M., and Ogura, A. (2005). Generation of Cloned Mice by Direct Nuclear Transfer from Natural Killer T Cells. DOI 10.1016/j.cub.2005.05.021 Publishing in Current Biology, Vol. 15, 1114–1118, June 21, 2005. www.current-biology.com
Current Biology