Valery Spiridonov, the first candidate for a body transplant, talks about how modern technologies for cloning living organisms were born, and discusses the consequences of their appearance for humanity.
Key of life
Research into alternative bio-reproduction dates back to 1885, when the German scientist Hans Driesch began to study reproductive methods, experimenting with sea urchins and other animals with large eggs. In 1902, he managed to raise two full-fledged sea urchins, dividing one embryo into two halves in the first stages of its growth.
A fundamentally new method of cloning was developed in the 1940s by the Soviet embryologist Georgy Lapshov. He isolated the nucleus of a non-sex cell and injected it into an egg with a previously extracted nucleus. This cloning method is called "kernel transfer".
Later, American embryologists were able to carry out similar experiments with frog tadpoles. And in 1996, the whole world spread the news about the successful cloning of Dolly the sheep. It was the first mammal to be cloned from adult cells.
Later, scientists tried to clone many more animals: mice, pigs, goats, cows, horses, rats and others. In parallel with this, new genetic engineering techniques were created that allow changing the DNA of an embryo during cloning and doing other fantastic things that are common today in science and medicine.
Cloned mice / AP Photo / Stephan Moitessier
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However, the purpose of such experiments was not only to recreate a population of rare animal species, but also to test technologies and cloning methods to create a copy of a person or his individual tissues.
Copies are illegal. Legislative regulation in Russia and the world
Most countries in the world have temporarily banned cloning. It is primarily due to ethical issues, as well as the imperfection of available technologies. When scientists carry out the cloning process, they simultaneously create hundreds of embryos, most of which do not survive to the implantation stage.
In addition, observations of the length of telomeres, the terminal regions of DNA, show that clones should have a shorter lifespan than their "parents", which, however, has not yet manifested itself in the course of observations of actually living clones, despite shorter telomeres than in animals of a similar age, conceived naturally.
In Russia, since April 19, 2002, the federal law "On the Temporary Ban on Human Cloning" has been in effect. This document expired in 2007. Then the moratorium was extended in 2010 for an indefinite period until the entry into force of the law establishing the procedure for the use of technologies in this area. However, the law does not prohibit cloning cells for research purposes or for transplantation.
Despite opposition from politicians and the public, the first laboratory studies and experiments on human embryos were recently conducted in China, the United States, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. In other countries of the world (for example, in France, Germany and Japan), such experiments are still outside the law.
Greenpeace activists protest against animal cloning in Germany / AP Photo / Camay Sungu
If we consider this issue from the point of view of religion, then we can say that any kind of cloning is unacceptable for representatives of almost all faiths in the world.
At the moment, there is no reliable information about the conducted experiments on human cloning. The National Institute of the Human Genome of the USA, one of the main research centers working in this direction, distinguishes three types of cloning: gene, reproductive and therapeutic.
Gene cloning
Cloning genes or segments of DNA (as defined by the University of Nebraska) is the process by which DNA is extracted from cells, cut into pieces, and then one of those pieces, containing one or the other gene, is inserted into the genome of another organism. …
Cloning DNA segments in the laboratory / AP Photo / Elaine Thompson
As a rule, it is played by various microbes, whose DNA is much easier to manipulate than the genome of humans or other multicellular living creatures, in which the genetic material is packed inside a nucleus isolated from the rest of the cell.
Having received several hundred of these microbes with "cloned" foreign DNA, scientists observe how their vital activity has changed, and select those bacteria that contain interesting genes that can, for example, make plants invulnerable to attacks of various pathogenic fungi or protect them from the encroachment of pests.
Likewise, “cloning” human genes into microbial DNA allows molecular biologists to search for the causes of various genetic diseases and create gene therapies that can fight them.
Therapeutic cloning
Embryonic stem cells and their counterparts, made from "reprogrammed" skin or connective tissue cells, can transform into virtually any cell type in the body. This feature allows them to recreate tissues and organs that are compatible with the recipient's immune system.
In Russia, this process is called cell reproduction. It is similar to reproductive cloning, but the growth period of the culture in this case is limited to two weeks. After 14 days, the process of their reproduction is interrupted, and the cells are used in laboratory conditions. For example, to replace damaged tissues. They can also be used to test therapeutic drugs.
This method is already used to grow artificial leather in the UK, and full-fledged bladders are being created in the USA.
Reproductive cloning
Cloning in the future could completely solve the problem of infertility - the famous Dolly the sheep was a prime example of this.
Dolly the cloned sheep / AFP 2017 / Colin McPherson
The cells of a deceased sheep served as a source of genetic material, another sheep became an egg donor, and the third animal played the role of a surrogate mother. Of the 277 cells, only 29 developed to the embryo state, only one of which survived.
Despite the uniqueness of the experiment and a scientific breakthrough for that time, its results were criticized.
The main reason is that the experiment was not genetically clean. In addition to nuclear DNA, part of the genome is contained within the so-called mitochondria, cellular "power plants". In this case, Dolly inherited mitochondria not from her "genetic" mother, but from an egg donor, which is why she cannot be called a 100% clone. The question arises - is it possible, in principle, to create an ideal copy of any person or animal?
There are no absolute clones?
Even if a clone is initially genetically identical to the original, its resemblance to it will inevitably decrease over time. This will affect both external and internal characteristics.
In particular, new random mutations constantly appear in the human and animal genomes, due to which the clone and the original will become dissimilar already in the first seconds of their “separate” existence. Even natural "clones", identical twins, initially have several dozen different mutations, and their number gradually increases after their birth.
Moreover, if we recall physics, we will notice that the very laws of quantum mechanics forbid the existence of ideal copies of any objects.
An uncertain future
However, science does not stand still, and over the past decades, techniques for cloning both genes and organisms have become much safer and more reliable, which reduces the likelihood of cloning failures or errors in DNA transplantation into a foreign organism.
For example, the emergence of cell reprogramming techniques allows scientists today to obtain large quantities of stem cells and even grow full-fledged embryos without sacrificing other embryos for this. So far, such cells are used only in laboratories, but in the future they may find their place in the treatment of Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, the consequences of strokes, blindness and many other health problems.
The improvement of biotechnology and the accumulation of scientific knowledge in the field of genetic engineering opens up new opportunities for humans: elimination of genetic diseases, biocompatible transplantation, an alternative solution to infertility problems and, possibly, the birth of children with specified parameters.
Valery Spiridonov