Nick Strelchenko et al. based at the Reproductive Genetics Institute in Chicago, USA, has now developed an original technique resulting in the first evidence of the complete replacement of the nuclei of hES cells by nuclei of somatic cells. Their paper Reprogramming of human somatic cells by embryonic stem cell cytoplast is accepted and was published online by Reproductive BioMedicine Online, rbmonline.com/Article/2071 on 18 November 2005. The final article will also be published in print in the January 2006 issue of the journal.

The new technique involves the fusion of different types of somatic cells with hES cells. The resulting ‘cybrids' were shown to have the genotype of the donor somatic cells and the ‘stemness' (the ability of the cells to divide, change throughout our lifetime, to provide cells that can become specialised and to replace those that die or are lost) of the recipient hES cells.

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