Part animal, part human

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What say you?

 

 

Scientists create animals that are part-human

Stem cell experiments leading to genetic mixing of species

 

The Associated Press

Updated: 5:43 p.m. ET April 29, 2005

 

 

RENO, Nev. - On a farm about six miles outside this gambling town,

Jason Chamberlain looks over a flock of about 50 smelly sheep, many

of them possessing partially human livers, hearts, brains and other

organs.

 

The University of Nevada-Reno researcher talks matter-of-factly about

his plans to euthanize one of the pregnant sheep in a nearby lab. He

can't wait to examine the effects of the human cells he had injected

into the fetus' brain about two months ago.

 

" It's mice on a large scale, " Chamberlain says with a shrug.

 

As strange as his work may sound, it falls firmly within the new

ethics guidelines the influential National Academies issued this past

week for stem cell research.

 

In fact, the Academies' report endorses research that co-mingles

human and animal tissue as vital to ensuring that experimental drugs

and new tissue replacement therapies are safe for people.

 

Doctors have transplanted pig valves into human hearts for years, and

scientists have injected human cells into lab animals for even longer.

 

Biological mixing of species

But the biological co-mingling of animal and human is now evolving

into even more exotic and unsettling mixes of species, evoking the

Greek myth of the monstrous chimera, which was part lion, part goat

and part serpent.

 

In the past two years, scientists have created pigs with human blood,

fused rabbit eggs with human DNA and injected human stem cells to

make paralyzed mice walk.

 

Particularly worrisome to some scientists are the nightmare scenarios

that could arise from the mixing of brain cells: What if a human mind

somehow got trapped inside a sheep's head?

 

The " idea that human neuronal cells might participate in 'higher

order' brain functions in a nonhuman animal, however unlikely that

may be, raises concerns that need to be considered, " the academies

report warned.

 

Mice with human brains

In January, an informal ethics committee at Stanford University

endorsed a proposal to create mice with brains nearly completely made

of human brain cells. Stem cell scientist Irving Weissman said his

experiment could provide unparalleled insight into how the human

brain develops and how degenerative brain diseases like Parkinson's

progress.

 

Stanford law professor Hank Greely, who chaired the ethics committee,

said the board was satisfied that the size and shape of the mouse

brain would prevent the human cells from creating any traits of

humanity. Just in case, Greely said, the committee recommended

closely monitoring the mice's behavior and immediately killing any

that display human-like behavior.

 

The Academies' report recommends that each institution involved in

stem cell research create a formal, standing committee to

specifically oversee the work, including experiments that mix human

and animal cells.

 

Weissman, who has already created mice with 1 percent human brain

cells, said he has no immediate plans to make mostly human mouse

brains, but wanted to get ethical clearance in any case. A formal

Stanford committee that oversees research at the university would

also need to authorize the experiment.

 

 

Harvesting human organs from sheep

Few human-animal hybrids are as advanced as the sheep created by

another stem cell scientist, Esmail Zanjani, and his team at the

University of Nevada-Reno. They want to one day turn sheep into

living factories for human organs and tissues and along the way

create cutting-edge lab animals to more effectively test experimental

drugs.

 

Zanjani is most optimistic about the sheep that grow partially human

livers after human stem cells are injected into them while they are

still in the womb. Most of the adult sheep in his experiment contain

about 10 percent human liver cells, though a few have as much as 40

percent, Zanjani said.

 

Because the human liver regenerates, the research raises the

possibility of transplanting partial organs into people whose livers

are failing.

 

Zanjani must first ensure no animal diseases would be passed on to

patients. He also must find an efficient way to completely separate

the human and sheep cells, a tough task because the human cells

aren't clumped together but are rather spread throughout the sheep's

liver.

 

Zanjani and other stem cell scientists defend their research and

insist they aren't creating monsters — or anything remotely human.

 

" We haven't seen them act as anything but sheep, " Zanjani said.

 

Zanjani's goals are many years from being realized.

 

He's also had trouble raising funds, and the U.S. Department of

Agriculture is investigating the university over allegations made by

another researcher that the school mishandled its research sheep.

Zanjani declined to comment on that matter, and university officials

have stood by their practices.

 

Allegations about the proper treatment of lab animals may take on

strange new meanings as scientists work their way up the evolutionary

chart. First, human stem cells were injected into bacteria, then mice

and now sheep. Such research blurs biological divisions between

species that couldn't until now be breached.

 

Combining monkeys and people

Drawing ethical boundaries that no research appears to have crossed

yet, the Academies recommend a prohibition on mixing human stem cells

with embryos from monkeys and other primates. But even that policy

recommendation isn't tough enough for some researchers.

 

" The boundary is going to push further into larger animals, " New York

Medical College professor Stuart Newman said. " That's just asking for

trouble. "

 

Newman and anti-biotechnology activist Jeremy Rifkin have been

tracking this issue for the last decade and were behind a rather

creative assault on both interspecies mixing and the government's

policy of patenting individual human genes and other living matter.

 

Years ago, the two applied for a patent for what they called

a " humanzee, " a hypothetical — but very possible — creation that was

half human and chimp.

 

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office finally denied their application

this year, ruling that the proposed invention was too human:

Constitutional prohibitions against slavery prevents the patenting of

people.

 

Newman and Rifkin were delighted, since they never intended to create

the creature and instead wanted to use their application to protest

what they see as science and commerce turning people into commodities.

 

And that's a point, Newman warns, that stem scientists are edging

closer to every day: " Once you are on the slope, you tend to move

down it. "

 

© 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may

not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

© 2005 MSNBC.com

 

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7681252/

 

 

 

Barb

 

 

RN, Holistic Healthcare Consultant

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