Corr S A, Gardner D S, Langley-Hobbs S, Ness M G, Kitchener A C, Sinclair K D
Schools of Veterinary Medicine and Science and Biosciences, University of Nottingham, Leicestershire, LE12 5RD, UK.
School of Veterinary Medicine, College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, G61 1QH, UK.
Sci Rep. 2017 Nov 23;7(1):15685. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-15902-8.
Our recent report detailing the health status of cloned sheep concluded that the animals had aged normally. This is in stark contrast to reports on Dolly (first animal cloned from adult cells) whose diagnoses of osteoarthritis (OA) at 5½ years of age led to considerable scientific concern and media debate over the possibility of early-onset age-related diseases in cloned animals. Our study included four 8-year old ewes derived from the cell line that gave rise to Dolly, yet none of our aged sheep showed clinical signs of OA, and they had radiographic evidence of only mild or, in one case, moderate OA. Given that the only formal record of OA in Dolly is a brief mention of a single joint in a conference abstract, this led us to question whether the original concerns about Dolly's OA were justified. As none of the original clinical or radiographic records were preserved, we undertook radiographic examination of the skeletons of Dolly and her contemporary clones. We report a prevalence and distribution of radiographic-OA similar to that observed in naturally conceived sheep, and our healthy aged cloned sheep. We conclude that the original concerns that cloning had caused early-onset OA in Dolly were unfounded.
我们最近一份详细阐述克隆羊健康状况的报告得出结论，这些动物衰老正常。这与有关多莉（第一只从成年细胞克隆出的动物）的报道形成鲜明对比，多莉在5岁半时被诊断出患骨关节炎（OA），这引发了科学界的广泛关注以及媒体对于克隆动物是否会过早出现与年龄相关疾病的争论。我们的研究纳入了来自产生多莉的细胞系的4只8岁母羊，但我们这些老龄羊均未表现出骨关节炎的临床症状，而且它们的X光片证据仅显示有轻度OA，其中一只为中度OA。鉴于多莉患骨关节炎的唯一正式记录只是在一篇会议摘要中对单个关节的简短提及，这让我们质疑最初对多莉患骨关节炎的担忧是否合理。由于原始的临床和X光片记录均未保存下来，我们对多莉及其同时期克隆羊的骨骼进行了X光检查。我们报告了X光片显示的骨关节炎的患病率和分布情况，与自然受孕绵羊以及我们健康的老龄克隆羊中观察到的情况相似。我们得出结论，最初认为克隆导致多莉过早患上骨关节炎的担忧是没有根据的。
