New stem cell technique is reported

ALAMEDA, Calif., Aug. 23 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say they have developed a technique to generate new lines of cultured human embryonic stem cells, leaving the embryo intact.

Robert Lanza and colleagues at Advanced Cell Technology Inc., of Alameda, Calif., said the technique -- involving taking single cells from human embryos -- could allow scientists to pursue human embryonic stem cell studies but avoid the controversial destruction of human embryos.

Embryonic stem cells are typically grown by extracting a mass of cells from an embryo after it forms a hollow blastocyst, destroying the embryo in the process. But Lanza's team showed they could instead remove a single cell from an earlier stage mouse embryo and amplify it into a colony of embryonic stem cells in culture.

The procedure is similar to that used during in vitro fertilization to remove a single cell for pre-implantation genetic diagnosis.

The research is to be published online this week by the journal Nature.