Human - Monkey Chimera Embryos

[Alex_Krycek]

Recently a paper was published in Cell confirming the successful creation of human / monkey chimera embryos.  

Source:  https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(21)00305-6

 

Introduction:

Interspecies chimera formation with human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) represents a necessary alternative to evaluate hPSC pluripotency in vivo and might constitute a promising strategy for various regenerative medicine applications, including the generation of organs and tissues for transplantation. Studies using mouse and pig embryos suggest that hPSCs do not robustly contribute to chimera formation in species evolutionarily distant to humans. We studied the chimeric competency of human extended pluripotent stem cells (hEPSCs) in cynomolgus monkey (Macaca fascicularis) embryos cultured ex vivo. We demonstrate that hEPSCs survived, proliferated, and generated several peri- and early post-implantation cell lineages inside monkey embryos. We also uncovered signaling events underlying interspecific crosstalk that may help shape the unique developmental trajectories of human and monkey cells within chimeric embryos. These results may help to better understand early human development and primate evolution and develop strategies to improve human chimerism in evolutionarily distant species.

Bioethics:

There are significant ethical considerations involved in generating and studying human-animal chimeric embryos, particularly when non-human primates are involved. Different guidelines exist at the state, national, and international levels, and it is important for scientists, bioethicists, policy makers, and funding agencies to stay engaged in keeping these guidelines up to date with the relevant science as well as for the welfare of society. For the studies presented here, extensive reviews of research plans and protocols were conducted in advance. Ethical consultations and reviews were performed both at the institutional level and via outreach to non-affiliated bioethicists with experience in state and national bioethics policies regarding these matters. This thorough and detailed process helped guide our experiments, which were focused entirely on ex vivo chimeric embryos. Furthermore, we limited our studies to early-stage chimeric embryo development.

 

Questions for Discussion

1.  What is your view as to the morality of these experiments?  Acceptable or not, why?

2.  Do you see any ethical considerations that would preclude moving the experiments to late-stage chimeric embryo development?

Edited April 16, 2021 by Alex_Krycek

[KittyBeRich]

I say this is horrible. We're playing God in a horrible way. I think as long as it doesn't get to the point where it's brain is advanced enough to become conscious I'm not gonna destroy whoever did it. This also brings up the question of whether or not the result of this be conscious, but that just hurts my brain so I wont think about that.   

[Phi for All]

!

Moderator Note

Posting only a video is against the rules, so that last post has gone to the Trash. People need to be able to participate in the discussion without watching a video or going offsite.