Breakthrough in human cloning raises hopes for treatment of Parkinson's and heart disease

Scientists have finally made the long-awaited breakthrough in human cloning by turning skin cells into early-stage embryos that were then used to create specialised tissue cells for transplant operations, it has been revealed today.

For the first time, researchers have unequivocally created human embryonic stem cells using the cloning technique that led to the birth of Dolly the sheep. However, unlike Dolly, the human embryos were destroyed when their stem cells were extracted.

The scientific milestone, which comes 17 years after the birth of Dolly, represents a major turning point in human cloning research which could now lead to new tissue-transplant operations for a range of debilitating disorders, such as Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, heart disease and spinal cord injuries.

However, the breakthrough will also raise serious ethical concerns about the creation of human embryos for medical purposes and the possible use of the same technique to produce IVF embryos for couples wanting their own cloned babies - which is currently illegal in the UK.

The scientists who made the advance emphasised that the work is designed to produce replacement tissue for transplant operations from a patient's own skin cells, rather than to improve the chances of so-called reproductive cloning. However, other scientists said the achievement inevitably brings the prospect of cloned babies a step nearer.

Generating a plentiful supply of embryonic stem cells from a patient's own skin cells has been one of the holy grails of medical science. Although the procedure has been achieved in laboratory animals - such as mice and monkeys - it has until now alluded several attempts on human material.

Shoukhrat Mitalipov, who led the research team at the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, said that he added caffeine to his cell cultures to create viable embryonic stem cells from just a small number of human eggs.

It was thought that to make [it] work many thousands of human eggs would be needed. We were able to produce one embryonic stem cell line using just two human eggs which would make this approach practical for widespread therapeutic use, Dr Mitalipov said.

Our finding offers new ways of generating stem cells for patients with dysfunctional or damaged tissues or organs. Such stem cells can regenerate and replace those damaged cells and tissues and alleviate diseases that affect millions of people, he said.

In 2004, scientists led by the disgraced Woo Suk Hwang of Seoul National University claimed to have produced the first cloned human embryos, and later said they had extracted embryonic stem cells, but they were forced to retract the research after a scandal over fraudulent results and unethical practices.

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Breakthrough in human cloning raises hopes for treatment of Parkinson's and heart disease