Controversial World's First Monkey-Pig Hybrids Born in China
The two piglets were born with monkey cells, however they died within a week.
Fabienne Lang
By Fabienne Lang
December 09, 2019
Controversial World's First Monkey-Pig Hybrids Born in China
Tang Hai/State Key Laboratory of Stem Cell and Reproductive Biology
In a world-first, scientists in China created pig-primate chimeras. The two piglets looked like normal baby pigs but had primate cells, and they died within a week.
The point of the research is to ultimately grow human organs in animals for transplantation. This type of biology sparks controversial debates, and this most recent experiment shows that there is still a long way to go before this method of growing organs is achieved.
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The first monkey-pig hybrids
"This is the first report of full-term pig-monkey chimeras," said Tang Hai at the State Key Laboratory of Stem Cell and Reproductive Biology in Beijing.
This development brings up ethical concerns but could prove useful for organ transplantation in the future.
Monkey-pigs!!!
There’s a reasonable motivation for investigating pig/primate chimeras... but it’s always going to be reported with Frankenstein framing.
https://t.co/wdlSOC3r3L— Dr Darren Saunders (@whereisdaz) December 9, 2019
Hai and his team of scientists modified cynomolgus monkey cells and injected them into pig embryos five days after fertilization.
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Over 4,000 embryos were implanted. From these thousands of embryos, 10 piglets were born, two of which were chimeras. All died within a week of being born. In the two chimeras, a number of tissues partly consisted of monkey cells.
For instance, the piglets' heart, liver, spleen, lung, and skin all showed a proportion, albeit low, of monkey cells.
Hai stated that the reason behind the piglets' death remains a mystery. However, given all 10 piglets died — chimeric and non-chimeric — he believes the reason may be because of IVF, and not the chimerism.
The team is now looking to create more piglets with a higher proportion of monkey cells.
https://interestingengineering.com/controversial-worlds-first-monkey-pig-hybrids-born-in-china