• Question: Is there certain types of animals that can be mixed with cells- I have only learnt about the mixing of cows and human embryos.

    Asked by thegoodthebadandme to Emma, James, Jayne, Kara, Sharon on 18 Mar 2011 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Sharon Sneddon

      Sharon Sneddon answered on 17 Mar 2011:

      Hi the goodthebadandme,

      Well in this country, the only hybrid embryos that are allowed to be created are between cow and human. This is really tightly regulated, and there are rules and regulations and they are only to be used for the purpose of making stem cells that could be used to investigate debilitating and so far untreatable conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s and motor neurone disease.

      However, there have been reports of mouse-human hybrids and rabbit-human hybrids.
      Hybrid embryos are very difficult to make and only a few scientists have been sucessful.

    • Photo: Emma King

      Emma King answered on 18 Mar 2011:

      Hi thegoodthebadandme – that’s a really good question because you do normally hear about cow/human hybrids in the newspapers. I’ve just read the reply above mine and I have to admit that I didn’t know cow embryos were the only ones allowed to be used – so I’ve learnt something today!
      When we talk about zenotransplantation – trying to make animals organs that would be suitable to be used in humans – we normally talk about work using pigs, because their organs are a pretty good match for human organs in terms of size. But that involves technologies that are different to stem cells.
      Sorry that’s all I know!

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