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Chinese researchers developed two piglets that were a hybrid of a pig and a monkey.

Monkey stem cells were injected into fertilized pig embryos to generate the pigmonkey chimera. These were subsequently implanted intosurrogate sows.Chimeras were a result of these piglets, which means that they contained DNA from a pig and a monkey.

"This is the first report of full-term pig-monkey chimeras," co-author Tang Hai, a researcher at the State Key Laboratory of Stem Cell and Reproductive Biology in Beijing, told New Scientist.

The main goal of Hai and his co-researchers were for the growth of human organs in animals for transplant procedures. The team has received ethical qualms related to the development ofhumananimal chimeras.

Mechanism on the Growth of the PigMonkey Chimera

The cells of cynomolgus monkeys (Macaca fascicularis) were grown in lab dishes. TheDNA cellswere provided steps to build a fluorescent protein that aimed to change the DNA. A bright green glow was a result of this protein. Embryonic stem cells resulted from these luminescent cells that were injected into prepared pig embryos. Monkey cells were tracked by the researchers through these luminescent spots.

A total of 4,000 embryos were recipients of the monkey cell injection and were subsequently implanted in surrogate pigs. Ten piglets were born out of these sows but only two grew both pig and monkey cells. The team used the luminescent protein to scan for the monkey cells through different organs. The hybrid chimeras were comprised of 99% pig as there is one in 1,000 monkey cells in each organ.

The low ratio of monkey to pig cells still is greater compared with the 2017 humanpig chimera that was grown by scientists. The said chimera was only permitted to develop for a month since there is a possibility that the brain might grow human cells and provide the animal with a human-like consciousness.

Ethical Issues

The pressure from the scientific ethics committee did not stop the team from creating humanmonkey chimeras early this 2019. The results of the said experiment were not published, but the researchers only allowed the humanprimate chimera a few weeks to develop.

Despite the success achieved by Hai and his co-authors, stem cell biologist Paul Knoepler of the University of California, Davis was not impressed with the results as it is discouraging because of the low ration of monkey-to-pig cells.

"The exact reason for the piglets' death remains "unclear," Hai told New Scientist, but he said that he suspects the deaths are linked to the in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedure rather than the injection of monkeyDNA. Other scientists have also found that IVF doesn't consistently work in pigs, according to a 2019 report in the journalTheriogenology," as reported byLive Science.

Hai and his team aim to increase the ratio of monkey cells to pig cells in future chimeras. The researchers aim to be able to grow human organs in animals for organ transplant procedures and to help in the field of human health.

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Chinese Researchers Created the First PigMonkey Chimera - Science Times