Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Monkey Embryo Mashup Results In First Primate Chimeras

 http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-01/monkey-embryo-mashup-results-first-primate-chimeras

Scientists in some lab have recently been able to create monkey chimeras (conceived with different sex cells ) using stem cells gathered from two different rhesus monkeys. By combining the stem cells while the monkey was still a zygote (early stage of an embryo) a chimera primate was born. A specific type of stem cell was needed for the chimera to be produced, totipotent cells. Totipotent cells have the possibility to form any cell of the body. The stem cells made in laboratories, pluripotent cells, do not have the same capibility. While pluripotent cells can form into cells a body can use, it cannot form a whole new animal as shown in the monkey chimera.

This experiment shows that grown stem cells are not the same as embryonic stem cells. If so, is it still ethical to to use embryonic stem cells in research? would it be ethical to create a human chimera?

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