Scientists create one embryo of a pig and a man – Scientias.nl

Researchers have for the first time, the embryos grow, partly human and partly pig. Thanks to the research scientists hope in the future human organs growing in pigs, so there is always enough donor organs.

It is the first time that a hybrid embryo is created, in which an embryo is composed of DNA of a human and an animal. The international team of scientists write in a paper in the scientific journal Cell what has occurred.

First started the researchers with a cross of a rat and a mouse. They did not interfere with the development of organs in the embryo of a mouse, after which the stem cells of rats were placed. These stem cells took over and formed bodies. Yesterday there was an article published on Scientias.nl about the creation of a mice pancreas in the body of a rat. In short, scientists are already very far when it comes to the combining of mice DNA and rattengenen.

But a pig and a human combine is more complicated. The evolutionary distance between a pig and a human is much larger. "This means that it is harder to different cells to combine in an embryo," explains researcher Jan Wu at the Salk Institute. Yet the bodies of pigs to that of people. The scientists placed cells of people in the embryos of pigs. Timing was very important. When the creation of a so-called chimera (a hybrid embryo) was successful, as were the chimaera’s three to four weeks in pigs placed. In total, survived 186 of the 1.466 embryos the experiment. These embryos existed after 28 days for one honderdduizendste from coincidence.

0,001% human
so You can not speak of a 'varkensmens', but of a pig with a little bit of coincidence. 0,001% to be exact.

Brain remains uncontaminated
"The researchers wanted to find out whether the coincidence of the implantation survived", says professor Insoo Hyun to CNN. He is not connected with the research. "These cells have travelled to different places in the embryo, but build nests in the brain. That’s interesting." In fact, this is relatively good news. Imagine, in the future, pigs bred for organ donation, but the brain remains one hundred percent from varkenscellen existence, the animals don’t have human traits. A pig that can think like a human: it is not only scary, but it is an ethical point of view also over the edge.

Sensitive research
The research is controversial, because later on, we will animals grow organ donation? And where is exactly the border? Currently we kill animals to eat them. When we will one pig to create ten life-saving, then that might be worth the effort. What is your opinion about the mixing of DNA? Leave your comment below, behind.