US creates human-pig hybrid embryos

Scientists in California have implanted human cells into pigs, creating embryos called chimeras – hybrids between pigs and humans.

RT reported that this is a groundbreaking study by the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, USA, aiming to hybridize a new organism from two large and unrelated species.

Human cells are implanted into pig embryos. Photo: BBC

“The ultimate goal is to grow tissue or organs that can be transplanted, but we are still a long way from that,” said Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, who leads the project.

Under the project, human cells were implanted into early-gestation pig embryos. Of the 2,075 embryos implanted, only 186 resulted in chimeras. (Chimera is the name of a half-lion, half-goat monster in Greek mythology.)

Human cells are colored green. Photo: BBC

According to BBC, in the chimera's body, only 0.001% of the protein is from humans, the rest is from pigs.

Normal pigs have a gestation period of 112 days, but the chimera embryos were only grown for 28 days, then removed for study.

By then, the embryos would be developed enough to study how cells fuse, 'without raising ethical questions about adult chimeras,' the scientists said.

Chimera embryo - pig carrying human cells. Photo: RT.

The gestation period of pigs lasts only four months, compared to nine months and ten days for humans. This fact causes the cells of the two species to develop at two different rates, which is also a challenge for future experiments on chimeras.

Although the development of complete human-pig chimeras is still a long way off, a chimera carrying human cells could be used to study human diseases, and differences in body organs between different species.

According to VNN