Radiographic assessment of the skeletons of Dolly and other clones finds no abnormal osteoarthritis

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...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Corr, Sandra A., Gardner, David S., Langley-Hobbs, Sorrel, Ness, Malcolm G., Kitchener, Andrew C., Sinclair, Kevin D.
Format: Article
Published: Nature Publishing Group 2017
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/48364/
_version_ 1848797748133888000
author Corr, Sandra A.
Gardner, David S.
Langley-Hobbs, Sorrel
Ness, Malcolm G.
Kitchener, Andrew C.
Sinclair, Kevin D.
author_facet Corr, Sandra A.
Gardner, David S.
Langley-Hobbs, Sorrel
Ness, Malcolm G.
Kitchener, Andrew C.
Sinclair, Kevin D.
author_sort Corr, Sandra A.
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description 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.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T20:08:48Z
format Article
id nottingham-48364
institution University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T20:08:48Z
publishDate 2017
publisher Nature Publishing Group
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling nottingham-483642020-05-04T19:19:15Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/48364/ Radiographic assessment of the skeletons of Dolly and other clones finds no abnormal osteoarthritis Corr, Sandra A. Gardner, David S. Langley-Hobbs, Sorrel Ness, Malcolm G. Kitchener, Andrew C. Sinclair, Kevin D. 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. Nature Publishing Group 2017-11-23 Article PeerReviewed Corr, Sandra A., Gardner, David S., Langley-Hobbs, Sorrel, Ness, Malcolm G., Kitchener, Andrew C. and Sinclair, Kevin D. (2017) Radiographic assessment of the skeletons of Dolly and other clones finds no abnormal osteoarthritis. Scientific Reports, 7 . 15685/1-15685/3. ISSN 2045-2322 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-15902-8 doi:10.1038/s41598-017-15902-8 doi:10.1038/s41598-017-15902-8
spellingShingle Corr, Sandra A.
Gardner, David S.
Langley-Hobbs, Sorrel
Ness, Malcolm G.
Kitchener, Andrew C.
Sinclair, Kevin D.
Radiographic assessment of the skeletons of Dolly and other clones finds no abnormal osteoarthritis
title Radiographic assessment of the skeletons of Dolly and other clones finds no abnormal osteoarthritis
title_full Radiographic assessment of the skeletons of Dolly and other clones finds no abnormal osteoarthritis
title_fullStr Radiographic assessment of the skeletons of Dolly and other clones finds no abnormal osteoarthritis
title_full_unstemmed Radiographic assessment of the skeletons of Dolly and other clones finds no abnormal osteoarthritis
title_short Radiographic assessment of the skeletons of Dolly and other clones finds no abnormal osteoarthritis
title_sort radiographic assessment of the skeletons of dolly and other clones finds no abnormal osteoarthritis
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/48364/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/48364/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/48364/