Possible Human Applications

Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) recently published a study demonstrating that parthenogenesis can be used in non-human primates. [D]

• The eggs at the 36 hour stage of development were soaked in media derived from a pregnant mare and kinase.
• 28 of the original 77 eggs reached the stage of metaphase II.
• 4 of these 28 eggs reached the blastocyte stage.
• The cells extracted from this experiment were found to contain characteristics of embryonic stem cells.
• Derivatives of all three germ layers were grown from this same set of cells. [E]

This experiment leads directly into a realistic possibility of parthenogenesis in humans.

If utilized in humans, parthenogenesis would most likely not be an effective method of asexual reproduction because of a side effect known as genomic imprinting.

Instead, human parthenogenesis would be an excellent way to bypass some ethical and legal concerns regarding stem cell collections. If used in this context, parthenogenesis could create new pathways for embryological research.