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| Courtesy: ONPRC |
Research at Oregon National Primate Research Center (ONPRC), has resulted in the first successful birth of chimeric monkeys — monkeys developed from stem cells taken from two separate embryos.
The research was conducted to gain a better understanding of the differences between natural stem cells residing in early embryos and their cultured counterparts called embryonic stem cells. This study also determined that stem cell functions and abilities are different between primates and rodents.
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| Science Direct The first cell type studied was totipotent cells — cells from the early embryo that have the ability to divide and produce all of the differentiated cells in the placenta and the body of organism. These were compared with pluripotent cells — cells derived from the later stage embryo that have only the ability to become the body but not placenta. In mice, either totipotent or pluripotent cells from two different animals can be combined to transform into an embryo that later becomes a chimeric animal. However, the current research demonstrated that for reasons yet unknown, chimeric animals can only develop from totipotent cells in a higher animal model: the rhesus macaque. OHSU showed this to be the case by successfully producing the world’s first primate chimeric offspring, three baby rhesus macaques named Roku, Hex and Chimero. "I don't think it's ever been done before in a primate species," says Shoukhrat Mitalipov, an associate scientist at the ONPRC. Mitalipov and colleagues have no intention of making human chimeras, but they hope the work will advance stem cell therapies for failing organs and other human illnesses. The Oregon researchers are using chimeric monkeys to test stem cells grown in a lab dish for their ability to diversify into all of the cell types and specialized tissues in the body. Science Direct |
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