A meeting of the specialist committee of the MHLW was held on 30 June 2010, at which the revised draft of the Human Stem Cell Clinical Research Guideline, for which the solicitation of public comments closed on 04 June, was finally approved. (See
BJ June 2010) The former guideline covered only gsomatic stem cellsh, such as hematopoietic stem cells, and the main focus of this guideline revision was the inclusion of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. The draft compiled in April, while covering iPS cells in the guideline, put forward the policy of only allowing the cells to be implanted in the person who provided the original somatic cells. However, since there were a number of opposing opinions in the public comments, this was reversed. A policy to approve the transplantation of iPS cells created from the cells of another person was then put forward and this resulted in the unusual occurrence of this being accepted in the final document.
On 25 June 2010, MAFF announced the current state of cloned livestock to March 2010 See
BJ February 2010). As ever, abnormalities are numerous, and since it has now become clear that there is very little merit in developing cloned livestock, the statistics indicate that the number of pregnant livestock has fallen dramatically, and development has come to a virtual standstill.
State of Livestock Clone Research in Japan (head) |
| 2009* | 2010** |
Total No. of births of germ line cell cloned cattle |
722 |
728 |
Stillborn | 74 | 75 |
Post-natal death | 35 | 35 |
Death from sickness | 104 | 105 |
Death from accidents | 20 | 20 |
Provided for experiments | 77 | 77 |
Sold, meat production | 329 | 329 |
Missing | 63 | 63 |
In research facilities, testing | 20 | 24 |
In utero | 5 | 0 |
Total No. of births of somatic cell cloned cattle |
575 |
583 |
Stillborn | 80 | 82 |
Post-natal death | 94 | 94 |
Death from sickness (within 6 months of birth) | 146 | 112 |
Death from sickness (later than 6 months after birth) | 36 |
Death from accidents | 9 | 9 |
Provided for experiments | 180 | 193 |
In research facilities, testing | 66 | 57 |
In utero | 6 | 10 |
Total No. of births of somatic cell cloned pig |
398 |
482 |
Stillborn | 88 | 93 |
Post-natal death | 40 | 51 |
Death from sickness | 119 | 142 |
Death from accidents | 16 | 18 |
Provided for experiments | 101 | 134 |
In research facilities, testing | 34 | 44 |
In utero | 14 | 19 |
(Mini-pigs are not included) |
Total No. of births of somatic cell cloned goat |
9 |
9 |
Stillborn | 1 | 1 |
Post-natal death | 3 | 3 |
Death from sickness | 3 | 3 |
Death from accidents | 0 | 0 |
Provided for experiments | 0 | 0 |
In research facilities, testing | 2 | 2 |
In utero | 0 | 0 |
* Accumulated total for the period 1998 to end September 2009
** Accumulated total for the period 1998 to end March 2010 |