American scientists said they raised an animal? chimera! 85% is a sheep, and 15% is a man. Outwardly, this is in no way noticeable: his head, body, legs and tail are the same as those of ordinary sheep, but the liver is mainly composed of human cells.
The implementation of a long-standing scientific idea required seven years of work from the professor of the University of Nevada Esmail Zanjani. The project was conceived as a search for an alternative source of donor organs for transplantation to sick people.
The idea of beastmen as living containers for growing essential organs is not new. It is based on the idea of the miraculous properties of stem cells.
In words, the algorithm for obtaining a healthy liver instead of a sick one is simple. The stem cells taken from humans are transplanted into the sheep's embryo, and the lamb born after two months already has a healthy liver. The liver is removed and transplanted into a human. In theory, other organs could be grown in this way.
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Animal rights activists, meanwhile, fear that if the cells are mixed together, it could result in cellular fusion, creating a hybrid that has the characteristics and characteristics of both humans and sheep. However, Professor Zanjani states: "Transplanting cells in an embryonic sheep at this early stage does not lead to fusion at all."
Recall that American and Chinese scientists have already achieved amazing results in experiments with human stem cells. Researchers from Shanghai fused human cells and rabbit eggs in 2003. These embryos developed in a test tube for several days, and then scientists obtained stem cells from them.
A year later, in Minnesota, Mayo Clinic researchers created pigs with human blood.
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All these creatures, named by scientists "chimeras" in honor of the Greek mythical creature with a lion's head, a goat's body and a snake's tail, will help to reveal some secrets of anatomy and find new ways of treating diseases.
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The first major achievement in the creation of chimeras dates back to the early nineties of the last century. Then biologist Evan Balaban transplanted human brain cells into chickens. The birds showed unique abilities in development, gave out flooded trills, which proved that there is a possibility of exchanging abilities between different living creatures.
In 2004, Stanford University researcher Irving Weissman succeeded in breeding a mouse with an almost identical immune system to that of humans in much the same way. On mice? Chimeras can now test new drugs for AIDS that does not affect common mice.
Later, the scientist inserted human nerve cells into a mouse embryo, and a small creature was born, which, according to Weissman, was one percent human in terms of mental abilities.
Now the scientist intends to inject human cells affected by Parkinson's disease into the mouse brain and investigate the development of the disease. In the dreams of the researcher - the birth of a mouse, the mental abilities of which would correspond one hundred percent to human ones.
Scientists believe that the more human-like an animal is, the more a suitable research model it will be for testing drugs and other needs. The opportunity to grow "spare parts" for transplantation into the human body is also attractive.
In addition, observation of the maturation of human cells and their interaction in a living organism may lead to the discovery of new therapies.
However, the creation of chimeras raises a number of questions: what kind of new humanoid combination is obtained in the end, and for what purposes is it permissible to use it, and for what purposes it is not? And at what stage should she be considered human?
William Cheshire, a neuroscience professor at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, believes studies that combine human and animal cells to study cell function are perfectly valid.
The ethical boundary, he argues, is where the human embryo is destroyed to produce cells, or when a new organism is created in the course of research - half-human and half-animal.
“We must be careful not to violate the integrity of human life and fauna, for which we are responsible,” says Cheshire. "Research that creates human and animal chimeras risks weakening fragile ecosystems, creating health risks and undermining the integrity of species."