The Buckingham

With the help of several individual embryos the world’s first monkeys were born at a US research centre. Scientists at the Oregon National Primate Research Centre produced the animals. These animals were known as chimera. By putting together between three to six rhesus monkeys embryos in the early stage of their development.

Three animals birth was taken place at the lab. There were no apparent birth defects and said to be healthy. The chimeras have tissues and organs made up of cells that come from each of the contributing embryos. The mixtures of cells carried up to six distinct genomes.

The scientists named the animals. Chimero was the singleton and the twins Roku and Hex. These infants are the first primate chimeras. The three monkeys are all male and different tests showed that Roku carried male and female cells.

The first chimeric animals were created by researchers in the 1960s, when experiments with mouse embryos showed they could combine to form a single mouse of normal size. Fifty years later,  scientists finally created chimeric versions of rats, rabbits, sheep and cattle.

The researchers implanted the chimeric embryos into five female rhesus monkeys, all of which became pregnant. Tests on the foetuses confirmed that all of the animals’ organs and tissues contained cells from more than one embryo.

Chimeric animals help scientist with their research. They explore how genes work. Creating chimeric animals we are able to test whether embryonic stem cells kept in labs are likely to turn into working tissues injected in the body. A normal test is to inject these cells into an embryo during the early stage. If the embryo grows into a chimeric animal the stem cells was incorporated into the animal’s tissues and organs.

In a trial of experiments the researchers found it nearly impossible to create chimeric monkeys by just injecting stem cells into early stage embryos. Only when very young embryos were merged together could they make chimeric animals. Stem cells inside embryos are able to grow into tissue or an organ.

“If we want to move stem cell therapies from the lab to clinics and from the mouse to humans, we need to understand what these primate cells can and can’t do. We need to study them in humans, including human embryos,” said Mitalipov.

Robin Lovell-Badge, who is the head of genetics at the National Institute for Medical Research in London, stated that there has been a theory that most human and monkey embryonic stem cell lines are different.

“This work supports this notion, as the macaque embryonic stem cells tested were unable to mix in with cells of the host embryos. This may be reassuring to those who worry that human embryonic stem cells could be used to make chimeric people, although in itself this should not be a concern, as such rare individuals already exist from the spontaneous merger of two early embryos. But it may be a concern for regenerative medicine if such cells are not as flexible as hoped,” he said.