Researchers working on a joint United States-China team are attracting a lot of attention for their most recent breakthrough. The team, which published its findings in the scientific journal Cell, succeeded in creating hybrid human-monkey embryos, also known as chimeras. If this sounds like something out of science fiction, it’s actually a reality we’ll soon have to address.
In this study, the research team started with macaque embryos and then injected them with human stem cells. More than 130 embryos were used, each injected with 25 human cells. Ten days after the injection of human extended pluripotent stem cells, 103 embryos remained viable. After only 19 days, however, the number of living embryos decreased dramatically to only three. The researchers were relieved when they discovered that a high percentage of human cells remain in the still viable embryos.
Meanwhile, you are probably thinking, why would researchers want to create these chimeric embryos in the first place?
“From these analyzes, several communication pathways have been identified that are new or enhanced in the chimeric cells,” explained lead author Izpisua Belmonte, who is a professor in the gene expression laboratory at the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences. “If we understand the pathways involved in chimeric cell communication, we could potentially improve this communication and increase the efficiency of chimerism in a host species that is more evolutionarily human.”
Credit: Weizhi Ji, Kunming University of Science and Technology
There has always been an interest in the bond between primates and humans because of our close genetic family ties. According to some people, however, these researchers may have gone a step too far. The following statement increases the concern about the motives of the research team:
The generation of a chimera between human and non-human primates, a species more closely related to humans along the evolutionary timeline than all species previously used, will allow us to gain better insight into whether there are evolutionary barriers to the generation of chimera and whether there are any ways we can overcome them.
The bold excerpt here is of particular importance; why would we want to overcome the obstacle to the creation of fully functional human monkey hybrids or any hybrids in which people are involved? The researchers aim to help develop transplantable tissues and organs for humans and even to develop new screening processes for drugs. But this, of course, raises many ethical concerns, especially when we talk about the use of this chimera. creatures to harvest organs.
“The scientists behind this research state that these chimeric embryos offer new opportunities because ‘we are not able to perform certain types of experiments on humans,'” he said. Anna Smajdor of the University of East Anglia Norwich Medical School noted in a statement to the BBC. “But whether these embryos are human or not has been questioned.”
Belmonte says, however, that “it is up to us as scientists to conduct our research thoroughly, according to all the ethical, legal and social guidelines that exist.”
What do you think of this wild development with chimeric human-monkey embryos? Is it a slippery slope that could lead to unwelcome consequences in the future, or do the goals justify the means when it comes to harvesting replacement organs for humans? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.
(Top image, credit: 20th Century Fox)