Experts raise ethical concerns over growing human cells in monkey embryos

Research that has w sparked ethical debate involves growing human stem cells in monkey embryos. In breakthrough research, a team consisting of biologists from US and China developed a human-monkey hybrid in laboratory settings. For this purpose, scientists injected human stem cells in embryos in Macaques monkeys and n observed m for 20 days, before all of m got destroyed on ir own.

"As we are unable to conduct certain types of experiments in humans, it is essential that we have better models to more accurately study and understand human biology and disease," says senior author Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, a professor in Gene Expression Laboratory at Salk Institute for Biological Sciences. "An important goal of experimental biology is development of model systems that allow for study of human diseases under in vivo conditions."

It is t first time researchers have attempted to create what y term ‘Chimeras’. Since 1970s, re have been experiments to combine n-human mammals, however, experiments using human cells started in 2017. For this particular experiment, scientists were led by Prof Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte of Salk Institute in US, who, in 2017, helped make first human-pig hybrid.

Study

Six days after monkey embryos had been created, researchers injected each of m with 25 human cells. cells were from an induced pluripotent cell line kwn as extended pluripotent stem cells, which have potential to contribute to both embryonic and extra-embryonic tissues. After one day, human cells were detected in 132 embryos. After 10 days, 103 of chimeric embryos were still developing. Survival soon began declining, and by day 19, only three chimeras were still alive, as reported by eurekalert.org.

A Human-Monkey blastocyst, Credits: Weizhi Ji, Kunming University of Science and Techlogy

'Pandora box'

While experimenters argued that stem cells t only survived inside monkey embryos for 20 days but also multiplied, it has w drawn flak for ethical reasons. Many from community have called for public debate over implications of creating part human/part nhuman chimeras. Speaking to BBC News, Prof Julian Savulescu, director of Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics and co-director of Wellcome Centre for Ethics and Humanities, University of Oxford, warned research "opens Pandora's box to human-nhuman chimeras". He furr substantiated his point stating that while se embryos were destroyed within weeks, it was just a matter of time before human-nhuman chimeras are successfully developed, perhaps as a source of organs for humans. 

Im Credits:Weizhi Ji, Kunming University of Science and Techlogy