 May
29, 2003
University of Idaho, Utah
State University Team First to Successfully
Clone Equine
A University
of Idaho-Utah State University research team
is the first
worldwide to clone a member of the horse family,
a mule, according to an article to be published
in the Journal of Science.
The research team includes
Gordon Woods, UI professor of animal and
veterinary
science,
Kenneth L. White, Utah State University professor
of animal science, and Dirk Vanderwall, UI
assistant professor of animal and veterinary
science.
The baby mule, Idaho Gem,
was born May 4. It is the first clone of
a hybrid
animal.
A mule
results from a cross between a female horse,
a mare, and a male donkey, a jack. As hybrids,
mules are sterile, except in extremely
rare cases.
Veterinary examinations of
the foal and its surrogate mother showed
them
to be
in good
health, Woods said. The foal romped with
its surrogate mother during a news conference
on
the UI campus this morning to announce
its birth.
The foal’s DNA comes
from a fetal cell culture first established
in 1998 at the University
of Idaho.
As scientifically and commercially
significant as their accomplishment
is for the horse
industry, Woods said he is most excited
because the project
provides a new animal model, the
horse, to advance understanding of human
cancer.
Woods believes the breakthrough
understanding of cellular biology necessary
for
horse cloning to proceed may offer
new insights
into cancer
development in humans.
Woods, UI professor
of animal and veterinary science, began working
on the cloning
project in 1998. As director of
the Northwest Equine
Reproduction Laboratory on the
UI Moscow campus, he has spent much
of his career
studying horse-breeding
issues.
Horses present a large challenge
to those who would use advanced
technology to
assist them.
Only two “test-tube” horse
foals, babies conceived in a
test tube, have resulted
from in vitro fertilization experiments
worldwide.
The mule clone born
in May is the full sibling
of a champion
racing
mule owned
by Idaho
businessman, UI benefactor
and mule enthusiast Don Jacklin
of Post Falls.
For three years,
from 1998 to 2000, the team worked without
apparent
success. After transferring
the nuclei from the mule
cells into 134
horse eggs and implanting
them into mares, two
apparently “false
pregnancies” resulted,
but both failed to proceed
past four weeks.
In 2001,
the team began to focus
on the calcium levels
in the
fluid surrounding
the eggs
during the cloning procedure.
The change led to the
first fetal heart beat,
signifying the
team had crossed a significant
hurdle in the experiment.
That year, researchers
transferred 84 eggs, establishing five
apparent pregnancies.
“
The results were impressive and immediate,” Woods
said. The first change
led to a significant advance in the development
of cloned embryos.
In 2002, Woods, White
and Vanderwall continued
to
adjust the calcium
levels in the fluid
surrounding the egg during the cloning procedure.
That change dramatically
increased
the team’s
success.
The team established
14 pregnancies using
mule
DNA in 113 attempts.
Eight of the
pregnancies continued
to at least the 40-day
stage
when
heartbeats were detected.
To
test whether mule DNA could be limiting
success,
the team
also made
61 attempts
to use horse DNA.
The test resulted in seven
apparent pregnancies,
two
of which developed
heartbeats. Neither
of the horse
clone pregnancies
developed past
the critical 60-day
threshold, however.
The
UI-Utah State team is the first
to succeed
among
several
teams
worldwide attempting
to clone a member
of the
horse
family.
The
2002
preliminary testing
showed the method
developed by the
researchers
to successfully
clone
a mule should work
equally
as well with a
horse, Woods said.
“It basically came
down to a matter of numbers, and we wanted
to
focus most of our attention on cloning
a mule, which was our original objective,” Vanderwall
said.
White is widely
recognized as
an expert on cattle
cloning and
brought
cloning
expertise to
the team. Vanderwall,
who like
Woods, earned
doctor of veterinary
medicine and
Ph.D. degrees, brought
extensive clinical
expertise
to the
team.
Woods had
taken an interest in
basic
horse physiology
after becoming
intrigued by
the observation
that stallions,
male horses,
do not develop
prostate
cancer.
The horse’s
basic metabolism
is “slow” compared
to humans and
many other
mammals, Woods
said. He
speculated
that difference
in
cellular activity
might play
a role in both
cancer development
and reproduction.
He
formed an
outside company,
CancEr2,
to investigate
that observation
with the
backing of private
investors.
The studies
showed
a fundamental
difference
between men
and stallions
in the calcium
concentrations
within
the cells
and
surrounding
fluid.
Woods
said the team
will explore
other
lines of
scientific
inquiry
opened by this year’s
success.
|
Moscow,
ID 83844