Technologue.id, Jakarta – Scientists in China say they have succeeded in creating monkey chimeras using stem cells injected into embryos.
For your information, chimeras are organisms that contain cells from two or more individuals. Previous chimera experiments were carried out on animals such as rats and mice.
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For the first time, chimera experiments were carried out involving primates. Researchers hope this breakthrough will help medical research into things like motor neuron disease.
The scientists behind the creation of these monkey chimeras explain in detail in the journal Cell. They hope to perfect the process in primates so they can better study the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, quoted from ABC News.
Judging from the term, chimera comes from a Greek mythological creature that looks like a lion, with a goat’s head sticking out of its back and a snake’s head and body on its tail.
The term chimera is now used for any fictional hybrid creature composed of parts of various animals. In real life, researchers are more familiar with chimerism, a single organism that contains cells from one or more individuals.
The first chimeras born in a laboratory were mice in the early 1960s when embryologists Andrzej Tarkowski and Beatrice Mintz fused embryos into one.
The same technique was then used on pigs, sheep, rabbits, cows, mice and monkeys. In the 1980s, a different technique was developed in which stem cells were taken from one embryo and placed into another embryo.
Stem cells are the basic building blocks of multicellular organisms. Stem cells have the ability to divide and change into other types of cells.
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Interestingly, researchers found that monkeys born from a scientific engineering process had green eyes. Further research appears to be needed to observe the development and health of these animals.
According to scientists, in the future, the technology could be used to produce transgenic non-human primates that could be an important tool for better understanding certain human diseases and could potentially play an important role in finding cures.
2023-11-10 10:00:51
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