Sherrie Gossett
For NewsMax.com
Friday, Aug. 15, 2003

The Greek mythological creature called the chimera was a fire-breathing she-monster, with the head of a lion, the body of a goat and a serpent for a tail. A chimera has come to mean any hybrid of two or more creatures and is a term used in genetics.

In the Chinese experiment, human nuclei was extracted from foreskin tissue and facial tissue from males and females ages 5-60. Samples were obtained from tissue discarded after surgery.

The somatic nuclei were then transplanted (“nuclear transfer”) into extracted New Zealand rabbit eggs and allowed to develop to the embryonic stage.

The scientists report that the rabbit DNA successfully reprogrammed the human nuclei, causing it to multiply and develop into embryos that contained the human genome and the rabbit DNA.

After several days of development, embryonic stem cells were obtained from the interior and put into frozen storage.

Since the resultant stem cells were found to be encoded by the genome of the donor DNA, the scientists hope that the research could be used to produce cells or tissues for human autologous transplantation.

“Cells or tissue derived by this pathway would have nuclear DNA identical to the patient's and, therefore, would likely not be subject to immune rejection,” said the scientists.

For this reason the scientists are hoping the research will lead to curative medical applications where tissue rejection has previously threatened the health of many patients.

The scientists say that the experiment proves that human and rabbit DNA can co-exist in a cell, and that age might not be a factor for human compatibility with such future cell/tissue transplantation.

Some uncertainties still exist, but the scientists report “it is possible that these cells will be recognized as ‘self’ when transplanted back into the same patient."

In a previous interspecies nuclear transfer (NT) experiment, rabbit eggs successfully reprogrammed panda nuclei, but according to the report, this was the first successful experiment using human nuclei.

Moral Outrage

The three-headed chimera of Greek mythology killed human beings and ate them, until it was destroyed by the hero Bellerophon on the winged horse Pegasus.

In the controversy surrounding mixed species embryos, today’s theologians and activists see themselves as the rhetorical equivalent of yesterday’s Pegasus rider.

Three years ago British theologians expressed moral outrage when it was discovered that a patent had been issued allowing for creation of a man-animal hybrid.

In October 2000, the European Patent Office assured Greenpeace activists that it would never grant a patent on mixed-species embryos because they were considered an affront to "public order and morality."

The activists were researching patents related to the human genome.

A month later a researcher in Greenpeace's German office discovered that a patent had been already been granted for creation of a man-animal hybrid.

The patent stated it included a method for producing a non-human chimeric animal by the implantation into the animal of embryonic stem cells, including those from humans.

London’s Guardian newspaper reported that church groups reacted with outrage, denouncing the patent as "morally offensive." Those criticizing the patent included a spokesman for European churches on bioethics and a spokesman for the Catholic Church.

The story was largely ignored in American media.

'Abhorrent'

Dr. Sue Mayer, director of Genewatch, told reporters: "The company is saying that it wants a patent on a process which could produce chimera animals using cells from a whole range of species including humans. Many people will find the thought abhorrent."

“Experts are in no doubt that the potential is there to create a hybrid creature,” reported the Guardian.

An Australian company, Amrad, was granted the patent in 1999, which covers embryos containing cells from humans and from "mice, sheep, pigs, cattle, goats or fish."

It was later sold to U.S. company Chemicon International, a provider of some of the basic material for the Chinese breakthrough.

Thomas Schweiger of Greenpeace called on the European Patent Office to withdraw the patent. He told the newspaper, "The chimeras may be non-human but they may contain human organs, body parts, nerve cells and even human genetic codes. The company does not give concrete medical uses and obviously intended to give the company broad monopoly rights on the process and chimeric creatures."

Schweiger said he believed that one possible use might be to grow human organs in animals for transplantation.

The European Biotechnology Directive, which finally came into force two years before the patent discovery, was expected clarify issues regarding patents for biotechnological inventions and had generally been welcomed by the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.

An expert analysis of it stated, “Certain inventions will not be patentable on moral grounds, including processes for… certain transgenic animals and human/animal chimeras.”

But the Greenpeace researchers found that such chimeric patents could be likely be granted in the future by referring to the results as “biological material,” avoiding the “against public order and morality” prohibition.

This is because the new EU-directive codified that “biological material means any material containing genetic information and capable of reproducing itself or being reproduced in a biological system.”

Greenpeace argued in part that patenting “life” would equate living nature with industrial products and degrade the dignity of life. In addition they warned that such “living organisms” would be under complete control of the patent-holder, enabling exploitation without ethical concern – fundamentally changing our perception of life in problematic and unalterable ways.

Greenpeace opposes patenting genes, plants, animals, humans and parts of the human body.

'Extremely Interesting'

Douglas Melton, a cell biologist and cloning expert at Harvard University, called the work a major advance "because it offers a new system for exploring the mechanisms by which egg cells get adult cells to act in embryonic ways. That could provide deep insights into human development, wound healing and tissue regeneration," the Washington Post reported Thursday.

The research is "extremely interesting, and I hope they pursue it," he said.

R. Alta Charo, an associate dean of law and professor of bioethics at the University of Wisconsin, told the Post, "Short of putting one of these embryos into a woman's body for development to term, I don't think this work harms anyone alive."

The experiments should force opponents of cloning research to specify where they would draw the line against the cloning of human embryos, she said.

The report of the rabbit-human embryo experiment appears in the August edition of the Journal of Cell Research, a peer-reviewed scientific publication of the Shanghai Institute of Cell Biology and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The experiment was supported by grants from the “863” program (a technology initiative of the State Council) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

All experiments were said to be performed in accordance with the current guidelines on human stem cell research (draft) issued by the Committee on Bioethics, Chinese National Human Genome Center (Southern Headquarters), and endorsed by Shanghai Municipal Government.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
China/Taiwan
Health Issues
Stem Cell Research
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