Cloning Yields Human-Rabbit Hybrid Embryo

By Rick Weiss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 14, 2003; Page A04


Scientists in China have, for the first time, used cloning techniques to create hybrid embryos that contain a mix of DNA from both humans and rabbits, according to a report in a scientific journal that has reignited the smoldering ethics debate over cloning research.

More than 100 of the hybrids, made by fusing human skin cells with rabbit eggs, were allowed to develop in laboratory dishes for several days before the scientists destroyed them to retrieve so-called embryonic stem cells from their interiors. Although scientists in Massachusetts had previously mixed human cells and cow eggs in a similar attempt to make hybrid embryos as a source of stem cells, those experiments were not successful.

Researchers said yesterday they were hopeful that the rabbit work would lead to a new and plentiful source of embryonic stem cells for research and, eventually, for medical use. But theologians and others decried the work as unethical.

Some wondered aloud what, exactly, such a creature would be if it were transferred to a womb to develop to term.

The vast majority of the DNA in the embryos is human, with a small percentage of genetic material -- called mitochondrial DNA -- contributed by the rabbit egg. No one knows if such an embryo could develop into a viable fetus, though some experiments with other species suggest it would not.

more.........................

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A55911-2003Aug13?language=printer

That's no big deal. They've been breeding human-sheep embyros in Kentucky for years.

You just made me spew out my coffee!

BWAHAHAHA!!!!!

Prepare for new high jump and long jump records.

for over 2 years now.

Anyone have a link confirming this?

But back in the summer of 2001, during his month-long vacation, when pResident Turd wasn't ignoring terrorism warnings and collecting bribes, he made a stem cell research decision that limited Federal funds to research on a handful of lines...that just happened by a wild coincidence to be patented by a company wiht ties to HHR Secretary Tommy Thompson.

It later developed that the lines were all contaminated with mouse cells and thus worthless for research purposes.

thanks

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=mouse+human+chimera

or this:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=murine+human+chimera

Many of the original stem cell lines were developed by being grown on a mouse cell base that acts as a feeder system to the developing human cells until they develop fully. The DNA obviously can't mix between the cells, but there were concerns about possibly using these lines later on for human studies. A contaminated mixture of human and mouse cells being injected into human patients would violate rules about xenotransplantation of animal cells or tissues into humans.

were sometimes used in human hearts, to replace faulty valves?

but if you're going to be injecting foreign cells or tissues into people, you'll never get regulatory approval unless you have compelling evidence that the experiments will be (at least somewhat) successful. there are many examples of the introduction of non-human cells and tissues into the human body - mostly where immune rejection will not be a major issue - in addition to heart valves, i believe corneal transplants aren't all that uncommon, and even baboon heart transplants have been (foolishly) attempted. currently, efforts are underway to develop transgenic pigs that lack the highly immunogenic alpha-gal epitope (people don't have it) so that their organs will be transplantable.

Welcome to my island...

What is the Law?

Not to run on all fours.
That is the law.
Are we not men?

What is the Law?

Not to eat meat.
That is the law.
Are we not men?

What is the Law?

Not to spill blood.
That is the law.
Are we not men?

His is the hand that makes.

His is the hand that heals.

His is the house of pain!

from the "sayer of the law" scene in The Island of Lost Souls

I thought the one with Michael York was call "The Island of Dr. Moreau" :shrug:

In any event, they are all based on the original story by H.G. Wells that is most certainly titled "The Island of Dr. Moreau". I'm actually currently re-reading my complete SF Treasury of H.G. Wells, and recently finished the story.

Interestingly enough, in the H.G. Wells original version, Dr. Moreau is a vivesectionist who surgically alters the animals in order to make them more human. Genetics were completely unheard of at that time. Just a little factoid for your enjoyment :-)

is from 1932 and the Sayer of the Laws is Bela Lugosi, but yeah, it's all based on Wells' "Island of Dr. Moreau", and the movie has since been remade at least a couple of times.
:hi:

Serf to Knights: Mind the killer rabbit!
Sceptical Knight: What does it do? Nibble your buns off?
At this point the pretty white rabbit made a jet propelled leap and tore the knight's throat out.

so don't worry, we won't see any rabbitpeople during our lifetime

> the thing wouldn't develop at all

When you say the chimera wouldn't develop, are you stating a
scientific fact, or an opinion? Do we actually know this for
sure?

(I don't think we do.)

At what point would it fail to develop?

Atlant

the thing would come apart and die on its own, that's a fact. it would eventually reject the human skin cells

and as far as we know, there is no womb that can sustain such a creature, even if it could exist.

Sorry, immunorejection such as you're describing doesn't
happen; the concept of "otherness" is fixed farther down
the development chain, and is based on what you are at the
moment when "otherness" is fixed.

If you're part A and part B, your immune system fixes
all else but "A or B" as "other"; neither A nor B (which
are both "self") wil be rejected.

Go read the links I posted.

Atlant

a human/human chimera. Two fertilzied eggs fused in her mother's womb and she was the result. The only way that is was discovered is that she and her family had some DNA testing done for some reason. The tests proved that she could not be the mother of her child, while her husband was proven to be the father. After MUCh further testing, they found her to be a chimera. The DNA in her blood was from one of the eggs, the DNA in her ovaries was from the other. That's why the blood test indicated that she was not the mother of the child. They said that they have absolutely no idea how commonly this occurs.

Not really relevant to anything here, but interesting.

In fact, while not a chimera in the strict sense of the word,
Calico Cats give you some sense of the effect.

Did you ever notice that all Calico Cats are female, and noe are
male?

That's because the Calico is a mix of two colors that are only
carried on the "X" chromosome and never on the "Y". IIRC, we have
"White/Orange" from one "X" chromosome and "White/Black" from the
other. So male cats, with just one "X" chromosome (and one "Y"
chromosome) can be anywhere on the spectrum from White-to-
Orange or White-to-Black, but can never be both Orange and Black
(as that would require two "X" chromosomes, rendering them female).

In the female calico, in any given region of the embryo, one or the
other of the "color" chromosomes becomes dominant very early on, and
the cat emerges with patchs of dominant-orange cells and other patches
of dominant-black cells, leading to the classical "Calico" or "Tortoise-
Shell" coloration.

A true same-species chimera is somewhat like that.

Atlant

Even if the hybrid had the potential to mature into a viable fetus, and assuming the rabbit mitochondrial DNA is similar enough to that of a human's to code for the correct proteins, studies attempting to clone monkeys have failed, and would almost certainly fail in humans as well.

"According to a report published online today by the journal Science, reproductive cloning in rhesus monkeys is hindered by the absence of key proteins that control cell division and the splitting of chromosomes. The findings indicate that reproductive cloning of primates, including humans, is unachievable using current techniques."

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=00015573-DBA6-1E95-8EA5809EC5880000&pageNumber=1&catID=1

Even without the foreign mitochondria, the embryo would fail to develop due to failure of the chromosomes to properly segregate. So yes, what he stated was a fact: cloning of human embryos, rabbit mitochondria or no, would not be successful with current technology.

They have stated they were 'destroyed' after reaching certain development. If you believe THAT............. (I've got some Florida land for ya cheap). I think all kinds of really sneaky stuff is being done we know nothing about.

.

Or is it a ploy to sell more produce in big supermarkets?

Then we could all make various jokes that have "But we can use the eggs!" as a punchline.

They're quite common in the GOP leadership and on Faux News.......

...except that they breed like rabbits!

It will still forget to take the right at Albuquerque. Now they just need to clone a Little Black Duck for a sidekick.
John
Watched too much Saturday morning TV as a kid.

Bush and his merry band of religious wackos decided to ban the use of human embryos, so the researchers had to find another way to conduct their life-saving research. You can't exactly ban the use of human skin cells, can you? Actually, this research sounds pretty innocuous to me.

:)

Was it Michael Weiss at the Washington Post?!

Is that what would happen?

anyone's ever seen!

Than they do!! This is getting so fucking stupid...hmmm...who's idea was it to explore this? Could the Chinese be involved in a joint venture with ChimpCo??

Getting away from the lagomorphic levity ... one wonders how such an individual would be treated by, say, the US Constitution.

The last time they had fractional humans, it was an unhappy situation, to say the least.

Seriously, this experiment was both unnecessary and dangerously beyond the scope of current medical ethics. We're not ready for shite like this, no joke.

:evilgrin:

and totally wrong. Guess we learned nothing from movies (i.e., Jurassic Park/The Fly).

On a lighter note, how wonderful would it be to have humans making more babies than they do NOW and can't take care of? As in, Bunnies?

"AW GODDAMMIT I WANTED MY RACE OF SUPER BUNNY-MEN."