Abstract: Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) provides a new tool for agriculture, medicine and biological basic mechanism research. In cutting-edge researches, SCNT is always coupled with modern biotechnologies such as transgenic techniques, embryonic stem cell protocols to service life science. It is well expected to be helpful to human degenerative diseases cure in near future with the aid of SCNT, although the efficiency is still low, not only in isolation and establishment of embryonic stem cell lines, but also in obtaining viable offspring. The present paper was designed to review the progresses of applications of SCNT in areas mentioned above.

Key words: somatic cell nuclear transfer; embryonic stem cell; therapeutic cloning