Scientists from The Scripps Research Institute have produced the first stem cells from endangered species, starting with normal skin cells.

Such cells could eventually make it possible to improve reproduction and genetic diversity for some species, possibly saving them from extinction, or to bolster the health of endangered animals in captivity.

They experimented with two endangered species: the drill and the northern white rhinoceros.

Initially members of the team thought they would have to isolate and use genes from animals closely related to the endangered species to successfully induce pluripotency. But that line of experimentation didn’t work.

Instead, to their surprise, after a year of trial and error, the researchers found that the same genes that induce pluripotency in humans also worked for the drill and rhino.

One of the greatest concerns with small populations such as the northern white rhinos is that even if they did reproduce, which hasn’t happened in many years, their genetic diversity is inevitably and dangerously low, and such inbreeding leads to unhealthy animals.

But researchers are moving toward inducing stem cells to differentiate into sperm or egg cells. With that accomplished, one possibility is that scientists could take skin cells from long dead animals, induce pluripotency, trigger differentiation into sperm cells, and then combine these with a living animal’s eggs through in vitro fertilization. Otherwise-lost genetic diversity would then be reintroduced into the population, making it healthier, larger, and more robust.

Or, both eggs and sperm might be produced from the stem cells, with the resulting embryos implanted in live animals, a process that current research suggests could be much more reliable than existing cloning techniques.

The group is hoping to continue producing stem cells from other species to expand their fledgling stem cell “zoo.”

Ref.: Inbar Friedrich Ben-Nun, et al., Induced pluripotent stem cells from highly endangered species, Nature Methods, 2011  [DOI: 10.1038/nmeth.1706]