London, Nov 15 : US researchers have reportedly created cloned embryos from an adult monkey, paving the way for human cloning in the future.

Led by Shoukhrat M Mitalipov, the research team was able to extract stem cells from some cloned monkey embryos, and develop them into mature heart and nerve cells in a laboratory

The researchers claimed their work established the possibility of cloning humans and getting stem cells from their embryos.

"The efficiency is still low, but I am quite sure that it will work in humans, " the Nature journal quoted Mitalipov, as saying.

The researchers used somatic cell nuclear transfer to generate cloned embryos. The technique involved taking the nucleus from an adult cell, in this case fibroblasts, a type of skin cell, taken from nine adult males.

Then an egg cell was hollowed out and the nucleus from the adult cell inserted.

The researchers used 304 eggs from 14 rhesus macaque monkeys and ended up with just two stem cell lines.

The scientists tried to implant about 100 cloned embryos into the wombs of around 50 surrogate female macaques. However, their efforts did not result in the birth of any offspring.

With this study, scientists hope they might one day be able to use these progenitors to create transplant tissues that are genetically matched to patients with degenerative conditions. (ANI)