Poster Presenter

Mystery and Problems of Cloning
Vladimir Aphanasievich Nikitin
Russia

The attention of investigators is accented on the fact that for many years, researchers cloning mammals experienced little success and met new cloning-associated pathologies and their cumulative effects in cloned animals often incompatible with life and/or reproduction ability in spite of great efforts in this area of research. It is not clear up to now what technical or biological factors underlie this, or how they are connected or interacted with each other that is more realistic strategically. There are many articles dealing with the influence of cloning with the nuclear transfer on genetic and epigenetic reprogramming of donor cells. At the same time we can see the practical absence of analytical works concerning the investigation of the very technology of cloning, its weak points and possible sources of cellular trauma in the course of microsurgery for nuclear transfer or twinning. This article discusses step by step several nuclear transfer techniques and the methods of early preimplanted embryos dividing for twinning with the aim to reveal possible sources of cell damage at micromanipulation that may have negative influence on the development of cloned organisms. We also describe several new technologies, developed by us, based on the study of cell biophysical characteristics which allow avoiding of cellular trauma while manipulating and minimize the possibility of cell damage at any rate.