The two hybrid creatures were born alive.
The birth of full-fledged pig and monkey chimeras was announced by Tang Hai of the State Key Laboratory of Stem Cell and Reproductive Biology in Beijing. Thanks to his efforts and the efforts of numerous colleagues, two supernatural creatures were born - piglets in appearance, but partly primates inside. Not God's creatures, definitely. The Chinese created them first in the world. The Chimeras did not live for a week, although they were born without any noticeable flaws.
Stages of introducing monkey cells into pigs.
The ultimate goal of "chimerization" is the best. Scientists want to raise animals with human organs so that they can be transplanted to humans. Having embarked on this path, they go slowly - at the present stage they partially replace the cells of some animals with the cells of others in order to see how they will take root.
Embryonic stem cells from cynomolgus monkeys (Cynomolgus monkey, aka Macaca fascicularis) were introduced by biologists from Dr. Huy's team into pig embryos 5 days after fertilization. They made 4 thousand of such genetic constructs. Introduced into sows. As a result, 10 live pigs were born, 2 of which turned out to be the same full-fledged chimeras. Read more about this in the scientific journal Genome Medicine
Before introducing monkey cells into pig embryos, scientists modernized them - made them so that the monkeys produce a fluorescent protein. The cells began to glow, which allowed them to be counted. As a result, it turned out that the piglets became monkeys only partially. Primate cells appeared in them in different tissues - heart, lungs, liver, skin, but in a small proportion - from 1 in 1000 to 1 in 10,000.
The Chinese intend to continue experiments by increasing the concentration of foreign cells in the body. Over time and as they succeed, they plan to completely transform some pig organ into a monkey organ. First one, then several. So, in the end, perhaps the dream will come true - to grow a human organ inside an animal, implanting human embryonic cells accordingly. Pigs will remain donors. Or sheep. Their organs are most suitable for humans in size.
By the way, the very idea of growing the organ of another in one creature has already been very successfully implemented in rodents. In 2010, Hiromitsu Nakauchi of Stanford University in California created a mouse with a rat pancreas. Now it's big, as they say.
Promotional video:
The mouse has grown a rat pancreas.
Experiments on the direct humanization of animals are also underway. In 2017, researchers led by Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte of the Salk Institute in California created a pig-human chimera, but so far with an extremely low human cell count of 1 in 100,000. For transplant, that's not enough. But the business is progressing at a good pace for such complex tasks.
Chimera of Man and Pig: The Process of Obtaining.
This is what a 4-week-old embryo of a pig-human hybrid looked like. The concentration of human cells in the embryo is still insignificant.
The fact that the macaque piglets died does not bother the Chinese too much. After all, not only the chimeric, but also the "normal" offspring died. Experimenters sin not on foreign cells, but on the very procedure of artificial insemination (IVF), which often does not go as smoothly in pigs as, for example, in humans. They will improve it.
The prospect of "chimerization" is favorable. Scientists do not sit idly by - they are competing with each other, getting permission for their stunning experiments. And society no longer treats them with a sharp prejudice - it does not call for them to be burned at the stake for interfering in the affairs of God. The ability to have an unlimited supply of organs for transplantation is gradually gaining the upper hand over the remnants of obscurantism.
Someday biologists will create a full-fledged human-pig chimera. People will cut them mercilessly and take their organs for transplantation.
VLADIMIR LAGOVSKY
