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JAPAN-SCIENCE-RESEARCH
Japan okays research using human cells in animals
TOKYO, March 4, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Japan has given the green light to a
controversial research process involving implanting animals with human stem
cells that could eventually help grow human organs for transplant inside
animal hosts.
The decision by the education and science ministry Friday to revise its
guidelines means Japanese researchers can now apply for permits to carry out
studies employing the technique, a ministry official told AFP.
The process involves implanting embryonic animals, likely first pigs, with
human “induced pluripotent stem” (iPS) cells, which can transform into the
building blocks of any part of the body.
The idea is for the iPS cells to grow into transplantable human organs
inside the animal embryos.
Japan had previously required researchers to terminate animal embryos
implanted with human cells after 14 days “due to ethical concerns over the
vague line between human beings and animals,” the official said.
The old regulations also prevented researchers from placing the embryos
into animal wombs to allow them to develop.
But the ministry has dropped both restrictions “as we have concluded that
there is technically zero risk of producing a new organism mixing human and
animal elements under the research,” the official added.
Researchers will now, for instance, be allowed to create animal embryos
with a human pancreas and transplant it into the womb of a pig, which could
in theory result in the birth of a baby pig with a human pancreas.
In practice, where similar research has been carried elsewhere, the
embryos have been terminated before delivery, avoiding the thorny moral
issues raised by creating creatures that contain both human and animal cells.
Research involving the hybrids sometimes called “chimeras” — after the
monster in Greek mythology with a lion’s head, goat’s body and dragon’s tail
— has been controversial elsewhere too.
Ethical questions have been raised about the status of animals containing
human cells, and whether human iPS cells implanted into animals could develop
into brain matter or reproductive organs.
But a shortage of transplantable human organs means researchers around the
world are racing to create mixed human-animal embryos.
BSS/AFP/FI/1528 hrs