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Tracy Hampton, PhD

JAMA. 2007;297:459.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Studies in mice show that genetically matched embryonic stem cells can be generated from unfertilized eggs and used for transplantation, report scientists at Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School, in Boston, and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, in Cambridge, Mass (Kim K et al. Science. doi:10.1126/science.1133542 [published online December 14, 2006]).

By activating mouse eggs through chemical treatment, scientists produced stem cells that could be transplanted into mice matched for the major histocompatibility complex antigens of the egg donor. These cells (which were halted during meiosis and have 46 chromosomes) differentiated into various tissues types without the need to suppress the recipient's immune system.

Somatic cell nuclear transfer or therapeutic cloning—the process by which the nucleus of a somatic cell replaces the nucleus of an egg—is the only means known for generating embryonic stem cells that are genetically identical to an individual, but the technique . . . [Full Text of this Article]