Scientists create a sheep that's 15% human

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2007-03-26 06:53pm

Scientists have created the world's first human-sheep chimera - which has the body of a sheep and half-human organs.

The sheep have 15 per cent human cells and 85 per cent animal cells - and their evolution brings the prospect of animal organs being transplanted into humans one step closer.

Professor Esmail Zanjani, of the University of Nevada, has spent seven years and £5million perfecting the technique, which involves injecting adult human cells into a sheep's foetus.

He has already created a sheep liver which has a large proportion of human cells and eventually hopes to precisely match a sheep to a transplant patient, using their own stem cells to create their own flock of sheep.

The process would involve extracting stem cells from the donor's bone marrow and injecting them into the peritoneum of a sheep's foetus. When the lamb is born, two months later, it would have a liver, heart, lungs and brain that are partly human and available for transplant.

"We would take a couple of ounces of bone marrow cells from the patient,' said Prof Zanjani, whose work is highlighted in a Channel 4 programme tomorrow.

"We would isolate the stem cells from them, inject them into the peritoneum of these animals and then these cells would get distributed throughout the metabolic system into the circulatory system of all the organs in the body. The two ounces of stem cell or bone marrow cell we get would provide enough stem cells to do about ten foetuses. So you don't just have one organ for transplant purposes, you have many available in case the first one fails."

At present 7,168 patients are waiting for an organ transplant in Britain alone, and two thirds of them are expected to die before an organ becomes available.

Scientists at King's College, London, and the North East Stem Cell Institute in Newcastle have now applied to the HFEA, the Government's fertility watchdog, for permission to start work on the chimeras.

But the development is likely to revive criticisms about scientists playing God, with the possibility of silent viruses, which are harmless in animals, being introduced into the human race.

Dr Patrick Dixon, an international lecturer on biological trends, warned: "Many silent viruses could create a biological nightmare in humans. Mutant animal viruses are a real threat, as we have seen with HIV."

Animal rights activists fear that if the cells get mixed together, they could end up with cellular fusion, creating a hybrid which would have the features and characteristics of both man and sheep. But Prof Zanjani said: "Transplanting the cells into foetal sheep at this early stage does not result in fusion at all."

Teleros · Post by **Teleros** » 2007-03-26 06:59pm

Sounds like good progress, although I'm confused as to the need of the picture ("don't worry it still looks like a sheep" XD ?).

Molyneux · Post by **Molyneux** » 2007-03-26 07:08pm

Teleros wrote:Sounds like good progress, although I'm confused as to the need of the picture ("don't worry it still looks like a sheep" XD ?).

It's for human interest.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2007-03-26 07:14pm

85% sheep and 15% human sounds a lot like the voting public.

Nova Andromeda · Post by **Nova Andromeda** » 2007-03-26 07:14pm

When the lamb is born, two months later, it would have a liver, heart, lungs and brain that are partly human and available for transplant.

-I fail to see how this helps. The sheep may be able to use the human's organs (since the sheeps immune system should now recognize the human's cells as nonforeign), but the organs still have sheep cells which should be rejected by the human immediately and violently. I don't know if anyone here has seen a full blown immune system rejection, but suffice it to say that bad match results in the foreign tissue being reduced to the equivalent of molten slag in a matter of 10's of minutes.

Darth Servo · Post by **Darth Servo** » 2007-03-26 07:19pm

Teleros wrote:Sounds like good progress, although I'm confused as to the need of the picture ("don't worry it still looks like a sheep" XD ?).

To put at ease the nutcase protesters who would say the thing is a grotesque abomination.

Darth Servo · Post by **Darth Servo** » 2007-03-26 07:22pm

Nova Andromeda wrote:
When the lamb is born, two months later, it would have a liver, heart, lungs and brain that are partly human and available for transplant.
-I fail to see how this helps. The sheep may be able to use the human's organs (since the sheeps immune system should now recognize the human's cells as nonforeign), but the organs still have sheep cells which should be rejected by the human immediately and violently. I don't know if anyone here has seen a full blown immune system rejection, but suffice it to say that bad match results in the foreign tissue being reduced to the equivalent of molten slag in a matter of 10's of minutes.

Read the preceding paragraph:

He has already created a sheep liver which has a large proportion of human cells and eventually hopes to precisely match a sheep to a transplant patient, using their own stem cells to create their own flock of sheep.

This sheep is just a stepping stone. Anyway, another use for this thing would be to allow for greater study of human tissue without posing any risk to any actual humans. Years ago, they developed mice that lacked any immune system of their own and replaced it with a human one to better be able to study HIV.

Nova Andromeda · Post by **Nova Andromeda** » 2007-03-26 07:33pm

Darth Servo wrote:
Nova Andromeda wrote:-I fail to see how this helps. The sheep may be able to use the human's organs (since the sheeps immune system should now recognize the human's cells as nonforeign), but the organs still have sheep cells which should be rejected by the human immediately and violently.
Read the preceding paragraph:

He has already created a sheep liver which has a large proportion of human cells and eventually hopes to precisely match a sheep to a transplant patient, using their own stem cells to create their own flock of sheep.

-Yes, I saw that, but I don't see how adding human cells to a sheep's organs helps him match sheep organs to a human. If you can match the sheep cells (mixing them with human cells doesn't help this as far as I know) why bother with the human cells in the first place? I'm bet there's something I'm missing, but I still don't know what it is.

Darth Servo · Post by **Darth Servo** » 2007-03-26 07:37pm

Nova Andromeda wrote:-Yes, I saw that, but I don't see how adding human cells to a sheep's organs helps him match sheep organs to a human. If you can match the sheep cells (mixing them with human cells doesn't help this as far as I know) why bother with the human cells in the first place? I'm bet there's something I'm missing, but I still don't know what it is.

Yes, you're missing the complete replacement of the sheep organs with ones that are 100% human.

Nova Andromeda · Post by **Nova Andromeda** » 2007-03-26 07:51pm

Darth Servo wrote:
Nova Andromeda wrote:-Yes, I saw that, but I don't see how adding human cells to a sheep's organs helps him match sheep organs to a human. If you can match the sheep cells (mixing them with human cells doesn't help this as far as I know) why bother with the human cells in the first place? I'm bet there's something I'm missing, but I still don't know what it is.
Yes, you're missing the complete replacement of the sheep organs with ones that are 100% human.

-That would certainly help explain things. However, how do you account for this:

The process would involve extracting stem cells from the donor's bone marrow and injecting them into the peritoneum of a sheep's foetus. When the lamb is born, two months later, it would have a liver, heart, lungs and brain that are partly human and available for transplant.

-I interpreted this to mean that they planned on using partly human organs for transplant.

Darth Servo · Post by **Darth Servo** » 2007-03-26 08:08pm

Nova Andromeda wrote:
Darth Servo wrote:
Nova Andromeda wrote:-Yes, I saw that, but I don't see how adding human cells to a sheep's organs helps him match sheep organs to a human. If you can match the sheep cells (mixing them with human cells doesn't help this as far as I know) why bother with the human cells in the first place? I'm bet there's something I'm missing, but I still don't know what it is.
Yes, you're missing the complete replacement of the sheep organs with ones that are 100% human.
-That would certainly help explain things. However, how do you account for this:
The process would involve extracting stem cells from the donor's bone marrow and injecting them into the peritoneum of a sheep's foetus. When the lamb is born, two months later, it would have a liver, heart, lungs and brain that are partly human and available for transplant.
-I interpreted this to mean that they planned on using partly human organs for transplant.

Well then who ever wrote the article doesn't get the terminology or fully understand what was being said since "precisely match a sheep to a transplant patient" (paragraph A) and "partly human" (paragraph B) are contradictory statements.

Master of Cards · Post by **Master of Cards** » 2007-03-26 11:27pm

"And New Zealand has an increase in Human sheep hybrids"

wautd · Post by **wautd** » 2007-03-27 02:59am

How much more percentage do you need to get the fundie breed?

Darth Servo · Post by **Darth Servo** » 2007-03-27 03:01am

wautd wrote:How much more percentage do you need to get the fundie breed?

You'll never get the fundie breed from sheep. Sheep have too much higher brain activity.

bilateralrope · Post by **bilateralrope** » 2007-03-27 03:10am

Darth Servo wrote:
wautd wrote:How much more percentage do you need to get the fundie breed?
You'll never get the fundie breed from sheep. Sheep have too much higher brain activity.

it would have a liver, heart, lungs and brain that are partly human

But they seem to be getting the sheep brains also transplantable.

The Original Nex · Post by **The Original Nex** » 2007-03-27 02:37pm

Finally those human-animal hybrids that Bush was warning about! It's about damn time!

HaakonKL · Post by **HaakonKL** » 2007-03-27 03:04pm

bilateralrope wrote:
Darth Servo wrote:
wautd wrote:How much more percentage do you need to get the fundie breed?
You'll never get the fundie breed from sheep. Sheep have too much higher brain activity.

it would have a liver, heart, lungs and brain that are partly human
But they seem to be getting the sheep brains also transplantable.

So we can give them to presidents and prime ministers? Sounds like a step ahead, if you ask me... :p

On a serious note though.
Isn't it so that human transplanted organs, (ie, my kidney goes in your tummy) requires really strong medicine to keep the immune system from rejecting it? How are they going to get around that?

Darth Servo · Post by **Darth Servo** » 2007-03-27 03:47pm

The Original Nex wrote:Finally those human-animal hybrids that Bush was warning about! It's about damn time!

Bush only warns against them because he likes being one-of-a-kind.

Darth Servo · Post by **Darth Servo** » 2007-03-27 03:48pm

HaakonKL wrote:Isn't it so that human transplanted organs, (ie, my kidney goes in your tummy) requires really strong medicine to keep the immune system from rejecting it? How are they going to get around that?

This project IS how they are getting around it. They're trying to make genetically idencital copies of a person's organs. Grow them in the sheep.

Molyneux · Post by **Molyneux** » 2007-03-27 04:12pm

Darth Servo wrote:
HaakonKL wrote:Isn't it so that human transplanted organs, (ie, my kidney goes in your tummy) requires really strong medicine to keep the immune system from rejecting it? How are they going to get around that?
This project IS how they are getting around it. They're trying to make genetically idencital copies of a person's organs. Grow them in the sheep.

(Just to add clarity for anyone who doesn't know: genetically identical copies of a person's organs won't provoke an immune response. That's why it's easier for close relatives to successfully donate organs than strangers.)

Rye · Post by **Rye** » 2007-03-27 04:54pm

You all mocked Bush when he said this would happen, now look! LOOK! DOOM!!!

My total hats off to the scienticians involved in this accomplishment.

Darth Servo · Post by **Darth Servo** » 2007-03-27 05:10pm

Molyneux wrote:(Just to add clarity for anyone who doesn't know: genetically identical copies of a person's organs won't provoke an immune response. That's why it's easier for close relatives to successfully donate organs than strangers.)

Well, it won't unless you have SLE but thats a whole different story.

Shroom Man 777 · Post by **Shroom Man 777** » 2007-03-28 05:19am

I'm sure they did this just to spite Bush's chimera rant.

Molyneux · Post by **Molyneux** » 2007-03-28 09:17am

Darth Servo wrote:
Molyneux wrote:(Just to add clarity for anyone who doesn't know: genetically identical copies of a person's organs won't provoke an immune response. That's why it's easier for close relatives to successfully donate organs than strangers.)
Well, it won't unless you have SLE but thats a whole different story.

What's SLE?

mr friendly guy · Post by **mr friendly guy** » 2007-03-28 09:49am

Molyneux wrote:
Darth Servo wrote:
Molyneux wrote:(Just to add clarity for anyone who doesn't know: genetically identical copies of a person's organs won't provoke an immune response. That's why it's easier for close relatives to successfully donate organs than strangers.)
Well, it won't unless you have SLE but thats a whole different story.
What's SLE?

systemic lupus erythematosus