Posted on 06/11/2019 7:13:06 AM PDT by Red Badger
FULL TITLE:
FUR REAL Plot to grow human organs inside RATS ‘could cure diabetes’ for some patients – but branded ‘waste of life’ by animal experts
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SCIENTISTS will try to grow human organs inside rats and mice, which could then be transplanted to hospital patients.
But the controversial experiment – which will attempt to create a pancreas inside – has already been condemned by animal welfare experts as a "waste of life".
Scientists plan to create mouse babies that grow human pancreases inside their bodies
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It attempts to solve a major healthcare problem: the short supply of human organs for transplants.
If scientists can produce their own organs inside animals and then harvest them, it removes the need for human organ donors – and would effectively create an unlimited supply of organs.
"Human organs will not be created immediately," said Hiromitsu Nakauchi, professor at the University of Tokyo and a researcher on the project, speaking to Asahi.
"But if this method is realised, it will be able to save the lives of many people.
He added: "We want to proceed cautiously with our study."
Researchers are currently waiting for their experiment application to be approved by the ethics committee – and then the Japanese government.
So how does it work?
First, researchers will create fertilised eggs of rats and mice.
But the genes of these eggs will be "manipulated" so that the rats and mice don't have the ability to create their own pancreases.
Scientists will then place human stem cells (iPS cells) into the fertilised eggs.
The result will be an "animal-human chimeric embryo", researchers say.
These mutant embryos will then be transplanted into the wombs of female rats or mice.
Shortly thereafter, human pancreases will begin to grow inside the babies' bodies.
Unsurprisingly, animal experts have been quick to condemn the research.
Speaking to The Sun, Dr Julia Baines, Senior Projects and Science Policy Advisor at Peta, said finding organs for people is a "laudable goal" – but said the end didn't justify the means.
"Interfering with the genes of intelligent, sensitive animals in a quest to create organ factories for humans is out of touch and a waste of lives, time, and money," Dr Baines told us.
"Although the pancreas is involved in glucose regulation, mice and rats differ from humans at every fundamental biological tier of regulation, from nucleic acids, proteins, pathways, cells, tissues, and organs to disease progression at the organism level.
"Factor in dramatic differences in environmental exposure and autonomy of lifestyle and, unsurprisingly, history teaches us that transplanting organs from one species into another has been a total failure.
"Instead, we should be encouraging more people to register as organ donors and investing in cutting-edge, non-animal science so as to minimise the need for organ transplants in the first place.
She added: "And we'd do well to remember that animals are individuals, not spare parts."
The study takes advantage of revised government guidelines, which previously banned this type of study.
New guidelines allow scientists to transplant fertilised eggs into animals – with no limit on the "period of cultivation".
However, the mating of animals that have been born this way is banned.
In this particular experiment, researchers won't proceed to the point where babies are born.
Instead, embryos will be removed "at the halfway point" to see if the pancreases have been created normally – and if human cells have spread elsewhere.
The end goal is to translate this research into organ growth within larger animals that are closer to humans, like pigs.
Being able to create pancreases on demand could be life-changing, with transplants working as a "cure" for some patients with Type 1 diabetes.
This isn't the only bizarre animal research we've seen lately: China recently created a mouse with two mums in a "gene editing" world first.
Scientists also create "monstrous" monkey clones that are gene-edited with diseases, and hope to create an entire "population" of sickly creatures for animal testing.
And we're not exempt from it either: last year, a Chinese scientist named He Jiankui claimed to have created the world's first gene-edited human babies.
Do you think this is a good or bad idea? Let us know in the comments!
DemocRATS?
The end goal is to translate this research into organ growth within larger animals that are closer to humans, like pigs.
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So this means they won’t be transplanting those tiny mouse organs into humans.
Going forward, the likely future incubator will be pigs instead of rats, after they humanize pigs.
Humanize pigs..?
That simply means the pig cell epitopes are re-signalled to identify as human instead of identifying as porcine, so that the human immune system doesn’t attack the transplant as non-self.
A. Those don’t look like lab mice.
B. “waste of life” ? Who wrote this, PETA?
C. Mice don’t have “babies”, they have pups.
I should have read to the end. Yes it was written by PETA.
That you have to ask if this is a good idea or not is a good indication that you need help. Please report to the nearest psychiatric hospital to be fitted for your strait jacket.
It’s the UK.
They have a waiting line years long....................
I B P A T B (”they’re laboratory mice, their genes have been spliced...”)
Docs want their subhuman test subjects
Lab mice and rats are white. Whoever composed the article was either uninformed, sadistic (attempting to cause revulsion among readers by picturing common brown alley rats) or both. IMHO.
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