The world's most famous sheep didn't experience accelerated aging due to cloning, University of Nottingham researchers report:
In the scientific version of her obituary, Dolly the Sheep was reported to have suffered from severe arthritis in her knees. The finding and Dolly's early death from an infection led many researchers to think that cloning might cause animals to age prematurely.
But new X-rays of Dolly's skeleton and those of other cloned sheep and Dolly's naturally conceived daughter Bonnie indicate that the world's first cloned mammal had the joints of normal sheep of her age. Just like other sheep, Dolly had a little bit of arthritis in her hips, knees and elbows [open, DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-15902-8] [DX], developmental biologist Kevin Sinclair of the University of Nottingham in England and colleagues report November 23 in Scientific Reports.
The researchers decided to reexamine Dolly's remains after finding that her cloned "sisters" have aged normally and didn't have massive arthritis (SN: 8/20/16, p. 6). No formal records of Dolly's original arthritis exams were kept, so Sinclair and colleagues got Dolly and Bonnie's skeletons and those of two other cloned sheep, Megan and Morag, from the National Museums Scotland in Edinburgh. Megan and Bonnie were both older than Dolly at the time of their deaths and had more bone damage than Dolly did. Morag died younger and had less damage.
How many times has the story of Dolly's death at the ripe age of 6 (with a supposed genetic starting age of 6 due to shorter telomeres) been used as a bludgeon against cloning?
Previously: Dolly at 20: The Inside Story on the World's Most Famous Sheep
Cloned Sheep Age Normally
Related Stories
In a Nature news feature, reporter Ewen Callaway looks back at Dolly the sheep's legacy, 20 years after her birth with a series of reminiscences of those who were there.
Karen Walker, embryologist, PPL Therapeutics: On the day we made Dolly, we had such a rubbish day.
Bill Ritchie, embryologist, Roslin Institute: It was 8 February 1996. I looked it up. We do know it was a rubbish day: we had various problems with infections and things.
Walker: It's a shame the building has been demolished, otherwise you could see the room in which Dolly was made. I use the word 'room' loosely, because it really was just a big cupboard, which, when Bill and I were in there, you could just get two chairs and the incubator in.
Ritchie: It literally was the cupboard. It was the storage cupboard at the end of the lab. When we got camera crews in later, they couldn't believe it, there was no room to shoot.
Walker and Ritchie were part of a project at the Roslin Institute and spin-off PPL Therapeutics, aiming to make precise genetic changes to farm animals. The scientific team, led by Roslin embryologist Ian Wilmut, reasoned that the best way to make these changes would be to tweak the genome of a cell in culture and then transfer the nucleus to a new cell.
The article contains reminiscences of about 10 of the people involved. It ends with Wilmut's comment: "It would be wrong to say my name's known all the way around the world -- but Dolly's is."
Scientists at the University of Nottingham have found that cloned sheep age normally and in good health. The scientists are monitoring 13 cloned sheep, including four that are genomic copies of Dolly, the first cloned animal:
The birth of Dolly in 1996 made headlines and captured people's attention as it provided evidence that a living creature could be completely cloned. Now, twenty years after Dolly's birth, a team of scientists led by the University of Nottingham have declared that cloned sheep age healthily after conducting the first long-term study into the health of cloned sheep.
The scientists performed cardiovascular and metabolic assessments, blood pressure measurements and musculoskeletal scans on 13 cloned sheep and compared the results to uncloned control sheep. Results show that all cloned sheep are healthy with no signs of metabolic diseases and have normal blood pressure readings. One sheep had moderate osteoarthritis - a joint disease that also affected Dolly and raised concerns of premature ageing.
The cloned sheep were between seven to nine years old - approximately equivalent to 60 to 70 in human years, according to the University of Nottingham. Kevin Sinclair, lead author of the paper and professor of developmental biology at the University of Nottingham said the sheep were healthy considering their age.
The cloned sheep have to die before their telomere lengths can be accurately measured.
Also at NPR.
Healthy ageing of cloned sheep (open, DOI: 10.1038/ncomms12359)
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 24 2017, @02:05PM (4 children)
Except telomeres regenerate...
https://www.newscientist.com/article/1989324-healthy-living-can-turn-our-cells-clock-back/ [newscientist.com]
So yeah, the premature news about "telomeres" for last decade is just that, news from people that don't know what they are talking about giving the impression that things are set in stone. Remember few decades back when everyone believed that brains don't create new neurons after child's brain matures? Yeah, like that....
Aging has more to do with complex systems failing than anything else. It's death by thousand cuts, not because of any individual thing.
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Friday November 24 2017, @02:17PM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategies_for_Engineered_Negligible_Senescence [wikipedia.org]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by frojack on Friday November 24 2017, @07:55PM (2 children)
When you see shit like that in a study, that should be your clue to run away from that study like your hair was on fire.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 24 2017, @11:05PM
...and have shorter telomeres.
the more strictly the 10 men stuck to the healthy regime, the longer their telomeres became
Another aspect to be considered is that your extra years will all have been used up attending meetings, "meditating" and "eating lawn clippings" (as Dean Edell MD would call that).
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday November 25 2017, @01:48AM
(Score: 2) by BK on Friday November 24 2017, @04:39PM
Sure seems like someone made a baaaad call all those years ago. They really had the wool pulled over their eyes.
I'll be here all week.
...but you HAVE heard of me.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Friday November 24 2017, @08:06PM (1 child)
Some journalism major latching onto a casual phrase from the original autopsy of Dolly to re-inforce their pet prejudices?
Nobody bothered to set them straight?
I learned never to talk to the press if they send a Journalism Major to talk to you.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 24 2017, @11:10PM
OTOH, they have the current results (in the still-living animal), they know exactly how old the individual is, and they have numerous others of the same age against whom they can compare.
Seems like you're picking nits.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]