X-Message-Number: 13657 From: "John Clark" <> Subject: Clones and Telomeres Date: Fri, 28 Apr 2000 10:03:16 -0400 In today's issue of the journal "Science" Dr. Robert P Lanza reports that clones made from old cows should live at least as long as regular cows, using several standard measures of cellular aging he found they're made of cells that act more youthfully than normal cows of their age. He even found the clones have telomeres that are slightly longer than average. Dr. Lanza says his cloned cows "could be the longest lived cows on the planet". He also reports that in studies of serially cloned mice a trend toward lengthening of the telomere has also been found. Apparently if Dolly the sheep's telomeres really are shorter than normal it must be an abnormality of some sort rather than a fundamental flaw in the cloning process. Michael West of Advanced Cell Technology says this is all very good news as he is trying very hard to use a variation of the technique to make spare parts for people and wouldn't want them to ware out before the rest of the body. More good news, in the same issue of Science the first unequivocal success in using gene therapy to cure a patient was reported. Dr. Alain Fischer treated two babies who had a lethal hereditary disease called SCID, 10 months after the treatment none of his tests could find any difference between his patients and normal healthy children. John K Clark Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=13657