Lu Guangwangxiu, academic leader of the Human Reproduction Engineering Research Office of Hunan Medical University, announced on March 1 that the research office had succeeded in developing the technology of cloning embryo of human cells, thus opening up a new prospect for the transplantation of organs.

The Human Reproduction Engineering Research Office of Hunan Medical University, a key State laboratory, successfully cultivated the country's first cloned rats from embryo cells in 1996. According to Prof. Lu, religious, ethical and legal factors, plus the deficiency of technology itself have greatly limited humans' application of the cloning technology, but, she added, it is practicable to clone man's organs or tissues. Last September, Lu Guangwangxiu, together with Lu Changfu, a doctorial student, injected the mature enucleated egg mother cells into the nucleus of granular cells. Eleven cloned embryos survived and three of them grew, with the growth rate reaching 27.3 percent.

The newly developed technology marked a breakthrough in China's cloning technology. Professor Lu said that although there is still a long way to go, the prospect for the application of this technology is already faintly visible: First, the cloning technology can be used to meet the need of human organs and tissues for clinical transplantation, overcome the reaction of immunological rejections of heterogeneous organs and tissues, thereby greatly raising the success rate of organ and tissue transplantation; second, human senility is due to aging cells, the use of this technology can make cells become younger.