Lab_mouse_mg_3216 By Rama - Own work, CC BY-SA 2.0
Lab_mouse_mg_3216 By Rama - Own work, CC BY-SA 2.0

Mice cloned using freeze-dried cells are able to have pups

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Peer-reviewed: This work was reviewed and scrutinised by relevant independent experts.

Experimental study: At least one thing in the experiment was changed to see if it had an impact on the subjects (often people or animals) – eg: changing the amount of time mice spend on an exercise wheel to find out what impact it has on weight loss.

Animals: This is a study based on research on whole animals.

International researchers have used freeze-dried somatic cells (cells that are not sperm or eggs) to clone mice that were then able to breed successfully. While current storage of DNA for cloning is expensive and unreliable because of the ultra-low temperatures required, the team was able to freeze-dry the cells and store them for nine months at -30°C. Although the cells died in the process, the team was able to create embryos by transferring the nuclei (the central, controlling part of the cell) from the dead frozen cells into non-frozen egg cells. They then used these embryos to produce cloned mice with a success rate of 0.2–5.4%. Three male and nine female clones were then found to be able to successfully interbreed and carry pups to term, with every female delivering a litter, suggesting this process could one day be used to save threatened species.

Journal/conference: Nature Communications

Link to research (DOI): 10.1038/s41467-022-31216-4

Organisation/s: University of Yamanashi, Japan

Funder: This work was partially funded by Research Fellowships from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science for Young Scientists (JP20J23364) to D.I.; grants from MEXT Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas (JP19H05756) to T.I.; the Naito Foundation and Takahashi Industrial and Economic Research Foundation (189) to S.W.; and from the Asada Science Foundation and the Canon Foundation (M20-0008) to T.W.

Media release

From: Springer Nature

Mice cloned from freeze-dried somatic cells

A new method that uses freeze-dried somatic cells to clone mice is demonstrated in a paper published in Nature Communications. The research presents an advance in the storage of genetic material.

Whole-animal cloning could be used to secure biodiversity and rescue threatened species. However, current bio-banking methods rely on ultra-low temperature storage, which is expensive and vulnerable to power outages or other problems. Recent advances have enabled the storage of genetic material from freeze-dried sperm cells, which has increased the stability and security of storage, but is limited by the ability to obtain healthy sperm cells. Previous research has shown it is possible to generate cloned offspring from somatic cells, indicating they could also be used as a genetic resource.

Teruhiko Wakayama and colleagues developed a method for freeze-drying somatic cells that is compatible with whole animal cloning. Firstly, they freeze-dried somatic cells, which could be stored for up to 9 months at -30 °C. Although the cells died during freeze-drying, the authors were able to successfully perform somatic cell nuclear transfer to generate blastocysts (early embryos) and yield stable embryonic stem cell lines. The authors were then able to use these cells as donor material for cloning to generate healthy female and male offspring, with a success rate of 0.2–5.4%. Additionally, the authors selected nine female and three male cloned mice and mated them with male and female mice. All females delivered a litter of mice, indicating normal fertility of the cloned animals. The authors note that freeze-drying causes more DNA damage than storing cells via current methods, however, the cloning success rate achieved indicates it may be a viable alternative. This is especially true when cost and long-term security are the main concerns.

The authors suggest their approach could provide a viable method for the storage of genetic material from any animal in a safe and low-cost way.

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