Scientists are developing, for the first time, a hybrid monkey embryo with humans – science

Scholars from institutions in ChinaGive Spain And the United State Human embryonic cells cultured in a blastocyst (a stage of embryonic development) Monkeys for the first time. The researchers in charge of the study say this is an important step forward in the study of genetic diseases, but the initiative also raises ethical dilemmas. The research was published in the scientific journal cell in this month.

For the function, the scientists injected human embryonic cells into 132 monkey’s blastocysts. A blastocyst is a group of cells with a lumen. It was into this cavity that human embryonic cells entered. The researchers tagged these injected cells and were able to monitor their evolution.

As of the eleventh day of implantation, 91 hives were still alive. Then there was a sharp drop and only three reached the nineteenth day, but ended up dying. The whole experiment was done in the laboratory Scientists say they do not intend to plant this illusion in me womb. The study was conducted by researchers from the Salk Institute for Biological Studies (USA), the Catholic University of Santo Antonio de Murcia (Spain) and the University of Science and Technology in Kunming (China).

Researchers tried to do the same experiment a while ago, with pig embryos, but were not successful. a second Mayana Zatz, Professor in the Department of Genetics and Evolutionary Biology at the University of the South Pacific, the first attempt was unsuccessful because there was a large difference between pig cells and human cells. Between humans and monkeys, there are more similarities.

Professor Carlos Mink, of the Department of Microbiology at the University of the South Pacific, says creating chimeras is a common occurrence in the scientific community. However, it is more usual to do this with mice. A chimera is a combination of embryonic cells from one animal with a blastocyst from another.

Mayana believes the model developed could help study how intercellular communication occurs. He says, “The question that interests us a lot is how cells” know “which organ to form, and how this connection occurs. Other possibilities she has indicated would be studying hereditary diseases or even testing certain drugs.

In the study, the researchers indicated that the human-animal illusion could contribute to regenerative medicine, and the development of tissues and organs for transplantation. It could also serve to deepen studies on the initial formation of a human being.

Mink disagrees with the potential benefits associated with chimeras. He indicates that the hybrid embryo only survived 19 days in the laboratory and that time would not be sufficient to carry out the mentioned studies. It also says there are other, less controversial alternatives, such as using pluripotent cells, to achieve the expected results. Pluripotent cells are those that can flip nearly all tissues.

The ethical dilemma

The United States does not allow federal funding to be used for research on human and animal delusion because it considers that there are ethical problems involved. Therefore, according to the magazine Science, The study was conducted in China, as there are no obstacles to its investigation.

Mayana Katz does not see ethical issues involved in the research because there was no implantation of an embryo in the womb and it is not a viable fetus, but a hybrid with no opportunity for revenge. “It would be completely unethical to do this on a human embryo, and the laws don’t allow it. But, since you are a hybrid, there is no problem,” Mayana explains.

Carlos Mink believes there is an ethical problem behind the research. Although the scientists have stated that they do not intend to implant this type of hybrid embryo in the womb, Mink says it may be necessary to keep him alive for a longer period and to be able to develop studies on top of that. “Implantation would be an ethical disaster,” he comments.

He also says that ethically, it would be better to conduct this kind of research with more different species, and more distant from humans. However, this is likely not to achieve the expected result – as it did in tests on swine blastocysts.

“I wonder why they did this experiment. It’s so limited, and the delusion is having a hard time surviving. We haven’t been able to study much about it. I don’t see anything new and this worries me morally,” Mink says.