The “What could possibly go wrong” file is so full, it may be time to give China its own manila folder for its experiments with human-animal chimeras that not only cross the ethical line – they wipe it out completely with genetically-altered erasers. The latest entry in the file is an experiment that attempts to reach the unholy grail of hybrids – human-monkey chimeras, created under the ‘good intentions’ guise of developing ways to address the severe shortage of human organs for transplants. Before you start pointing fingers at China’s Kunming University of Science and Technology, the leader of this experiment was an American from the Salk Institute in California who has also been involved in creating human-pig chimeras. Do we need to start TWO files?
Chimeric Human-Monkey Embryos Kept Alive for a Record 19 Days
A chimeric human-monkey blastocyst.
Building on previous experiments, an international team of scientists has created chimeric human-monkey embryos, which were kept alive for nearly three weeks. The breakthrough could lead to new ways of testing drugs and generating organs for transplant, but this line of research is raising some ethical concerns.
Advertisement
New research in Cell details the experiment, in which human stem cells were injected into primate embryos belonging to macaque monkeys. Most of these chimeric embryos were dead by the 10th day, but several developed for 19 days. Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, the lead author of the new study and a biologist at the Salk Institute, had previously kept human-monkey chimeric embryos alive for 14 days.
Credit: Weizhi Ji, Kunming University of Science and Technology
Investigators in China and the United States have injected human stem cells into primate embryos and were able to grow chimeric embryos for a significant period of time up to 20 days. The research, despite its ethical concerns, has the potential to provide new insights into developmental biology and evolution. It also has implications for developing new models of human biology and disease. The work appears April 15 in the journal
Cell. As we are unable to conduct certain types of experiments in humans, it is essential that we have better models to more accurately study and understand human biology and disease, says senior author Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, a professor in the Gene Expression Laboratory at the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences. An important goal of experimental biology is the development of model systems that allow for the study of human diseases under in vivo conditions.
Weizhi Ji, Kunming University of Science and Technology
Researchers have grown human cells in monkey embryos with the aim of understanding more about how cells develop and communicate with each other.
Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte at the Salk Institute in California and his colleagues have produced what are known as human-monkey chimeras, with human stem cells – special cells that have the ability to develop into many different cell types – inserted in macaque embryos in petri dishes in the lab.
Advertisement
However, some ethicists have raised concerns, saying this type of work “poses significant ethical and legal challenges”.
Izpisua Belmonte says the team’s work could pave the way in addressing the severe shortage in transplantable organs, as well as help us understand more about early human development, disease progression and ageing. “These chimeric approaches could be really very useful for advancing biomedical research not just at the very earliest stage of li
Credit: Salk Institute
LA JOLLA (April 15, 2021) The ability to grow the cells of one species within an organism of a different species offers scientists a powerful tool for research and medicine. It s an approach that could advance our understanding of early human development, disease onset and progression and aging; provide innovative platforms for drug evaluation; and address the critical need for transplantable organs. Yet developing such capabilities has been a formidable challenge.
Researchers led by Salk Professor Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte have now come one step closer toward this goal by demonstrating a new integration of human cells into animal tissue. Published in the journal