Human Cells Grown in Monkey Embryos Reignite Ethics Debate
DannyB writes:
Human cells grown in monkey embryos reignite ethics debate
Scientists confirm they have produced 'chimera' embryos from long-tailed macaques and humans
Monkey embryos containing human cells have been produced in a laboratory, a study has confirmed, spurring fresh debate into the ethics of such experiments.
[....] In recent years researchers have produced pig embryos and sheep embryos that contain human cells - research they say is important as it could one day allow them to grow human organs inside other animals, increasing the number of organs available for transplant.
Now scientists have confirmed they have produced macaque embryos that contain human cells, revealing the cells could survive and even multiply.
[....] The study, published in the journal Cell, reveals how the scientists took specific human foetal cells called fibroblasts and reprogrammed them to become stem cells. These were then introduced into 132 embryos of long-tailed macaques, six days after fertilisation.
[....] The embryos were allowed to develop in petri dishes and were terminated 19 days after the stem cells were injected. In order to check whether the embryos contained human cells, the team engineered the human stem cells to produce a fluorescent protein.
[....] Wu said they hoped the research would help develop "transplantable human tissues and organs in pigs to help overcome the shortages of donor organs worldwide".
Prof Robin Lovell-Badge, a developmental biologist from the Francis Crick Institute in London, said at the time of the El Pais report he was not concerned about the ethics of the experiment, noting the team had only produced a ball of cells. But he noted conundrums could arise in the future should the embryos be allowed to develop further.
[....] "These embryos were destroyed at 20 days of development but it is only a matter of time before human-nonhuman chimeras are successfully developed, perhaps as a source of organs for humans," he said, adding that a key ethical question is over the moral status of such creatures.
"Before any experiments are performed on live-born chimeras, or their organs extracted, it is essential that their mental capacities and lives are properly assessed. [....]
Are people in need of replacement organs more likely to favor this kind of research?
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