This technique could, according to them, be used one day to conserve endangered species.
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A scenario at Jurassic Park ? Japanese scientists have produced mouse clones using freeze-dried cells, according to a scientific study published Tuesday, July 5 in the journal NatureCommunications (in English). Initiatives to preserve samples of endangered species from cloning have flourished around the world in recent years, but this technique is unprecedented.
These samples, usually sperm or egg cells, are often cryopreserved in liquid nitrogen or at very low temperatures, processes that can be expensive and prone to power failures. This time, the scientists used freeze-drying – the removal of all water from a body by drying – of somatic cells. That is to say all those that are not related to sperm or oocytes.
They freeze-dried cells taken from the tails of mice or near immature oocytes of females. Freeze-drying killed the cells and damaged their DNA, but they could be used to create clones of blastocysts, an assembly of cells that develop into an embryo.
The researchers then extracted stem cell lines from it, which made it possible to produce 75 mouse clones. One of them, Dorami, survived a year and nine months. The team also managed to breed nine females and three cloned males with normal mice.
Ultimately, this technique could “allowing the economic and safe conservation of genetic materials from all over the world”asserted Teruhiko Wakayama, who contributed research. A considerable asset for developing countries.
The team, a pioneer in freeze-drying, sent freeze-dried mouse sperm to the International Space Station (ISS), which returned healthy after six years in space and, once rehydrated, produced young mice.