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Cloned Sheep Age Normally

posted by n1 on Tuesday July 26 2016, @07:07PM   Printer-friendly
from the our-business-is-life-itself dept.

takyon writes:

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)

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday July 26 2016, @08:29PM

    by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Tuesday July 26 2016, @08:29PM (#380426) Journal

    "There is nothing to suggest that these animals were anything other than perfectly normal," says Sinclair. They had slight signs of arthritis (Debbie in particular), but not enough to cause problems. "If I put them in with a bunch of other sheep, you would never be able to identify them," he says.

    The scientists haven't investigated the length of the animals' chromosome tips, called telomeres. That will have to wait until the animals die, so scientists can get cells from a variety of organs.

    [...] As for the sheep clones in his care, Sinclair says "they will continue to lead normal sheep lives." Once they reach the ripe old age of about 10, they'll be euthanized and the researchers will do a detailed post-mortem analysis of their bodies.

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  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 26 2016, @08:44PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 26 2016, @08:44PM (#380436)

    That is nonsense. They could easily take blood samples now. Also, if they wanted, they could easily do biopsies on other tissues. This sounds like excuses, I bet they did check the telomeres and decided they didn't like the results for some reason.

    • (Score: 2) by art guerrilla on Tuesday July 26 2016, @10:38PM

      by art guerrilla (3082) on Tuesday July 26 2016, @10:38PM (#380479)

      could possibly do all kinds of shit, including an MRI, etc, but maybe they don't have the budget to perform more expensive procedures that are possibly a lot easier/cheaper when in cadaver form...
      just speculatin'...