Goat sperm transplantation to humans: The past and future of heterosexual transplantation

If we transplant animal organs into humans, what is the definition of humans changing?

It was around mid-2003 that a Korean company unexpectedly introduced the latest achievement from its R&D activities: Maria Biotech announced the creation of rat embryos carrying human cells.

What are their ideas when doing this? Human-born mice can serve medical tests. Suppose we can prepare a cancer medicine, but we don't know how safe and effective it is. Let the 'hybrid' mice try first.

Experiment with hybrid creatures for greater accuracy with traditional mouse testing. At the same time, it does not draw any of our kind into potential risks, even if they are voluntary.

But the problem is not simple.

A reporter then asked Maria Biotech, "Are human cells really present in every tissue of mice?" - Yes, that's right, the company representative said.

Are human cells in their ovaries and testes? - Perhaps, yes.

So what happens if two mice meet? Sperm will encounter human eggs, but is inside the oviduct of a female mouse?

'This question put an end to the whole project,' said Kevin FitzGerald, a biologist at Georgetown University. The scenario that the reporter asked was almost impossible. But the question represented a host of other moral doubts, around creating 'hybrid' creatures with human cells.

What will be the past and future of heterosexual transplantation?

The shortage of donor organs is a common situation worldwide. In the US alone, there are about 120,000 people waiting in line for the list of organs to be donated. Every day passes, 20 of them will die.

Compared to cancer patients with no cure, patients should be able to live but only because of organ transplantation left a big regret for the health sector. It poses a rather crazy solution, but not impossible: xenotransplantation - also known as heterosexual transplantation.

Heterosexual organ transplantation began to appear in scientific literature at the beginning of the 20th century. For more than 100 years later, animal organ transplant efforts to regret all led to failure. Visceral organs from rabbits, sheep, pigs . until chimpanzees are extremely close to us all have been tested. The success rate as of now is still 0%.

The biggest problem with any transplant, even from human to human, is the immune system response. The immune system rejects and attacks all foreign donor agencies. This phenomenon is called graft rejection.

Patients with organ transplants from people who want to prevent rejection must take inhibitors and weaken their immune systems for life. Now, you can imagine just how extreme the rejection of the body will be with an animal transplant organ.

According to scientific documents, chimpanzee heart transplant patients will die only 2 hours after surgery. Patients receiving liver from baboons can only live an average of 70 days. Most optimistic, doctors once thought that people who received kidneys from chimpanzees would live normally. But in the end, they all died suddenly and lived for no more than 9 months.

The biggest problem with any transplant, even from human to human, is the immune rejection reaction from the immune system.

Another concern from heterosexual transplants from animals to humans, is the risk of infectious disease. We all know that viruses in animals are very difficult to infect humans. But once it happens, it will become a disaster. Most of the world's pandemics, from HIV, bird flu to SARS, MERS and Zika, are derived from animals.

Heterosexual implants can ignite a tragedy. 'We can save a person and cause an epidemic that kills 10,000 others ,' FitzGerald said.

Even so, let 's talk about ' nothing is impossible 'later. Many advances in genetic modification technology are opening up hope for heterosexual transplants. Just a few months ago, scientists almost created the first hybrid chimera creature in the world. It is a pig embryo that contains human stem cells.

This half-human half-pig embryo is not allowed to grow more than 28 days. Scientists have actively canceled their experiments because of moral issues. But just come here, it laid the foundation for a dream, when we can develop human internal organs within the animal body.

After that, cloning technology can create countless organisms and we will almost have an endless supply of organs.

Today, whether or not a heterogeneous implant has been developed depends much on whether it makes money for biotech companies. Basic research and policies have been placed on the secondary line.

Companies will always question that what they are developing to serve the market, how much can investment bring in profits? Every advancement in technology has raised additional questions. But there is still a prerequisite and always through: Where is the time to stop?

Many issues related to philosophy and morality are in place. For example, is the use of animal organs unethical? If we transplant animal organs into humans, does this change the definition of humans?

If we transplant animal organs into humans, does this change the definition of humans?

Do we really want to say that people are human once he still carries his brain? Talking about morality nor the factor can promote heterosexual transplantation research developed, FitzGerald said. This problem will surely make us think and look back more.

Even when developing perfect organs in successful animals, there are still questions about economy and scale.'We can raise pigs in bulk for food, but the facilities needed for the pigs for organ transplants will be much more expensive than ordinary pigs , ' FitzGerald said.

How many organs will be created, how much will this cost, and who will pay? The heterosexual transplant method is scientifically attractive, but it is not really an immediate solution to the shortage of organs.

Even so, FitzGerald still thinks the idea of ​​a heterosexual transplant will not go into a dead end by itself. This type of technology can lead to other solutions with less moral controversy, such as cultivating individual organs in the laboratory.

He also argued that people should not argue that developing a heterogeneous transplant is a solution to the shortage of organs or that it is not 'timely' at this time. Who knows, if we continue to develop it, new technologies and insights will make another step, an intermediate step on the path towards our ultimate goal.

History of heterogeneous implant methods

Heterosexual transplantation has a long history. Some scientists joked that it appeared from Greek mythology. Icarus and Dedalus are the master architects who built the labyrinth on Crete. In a run away from King Minos's army, they devised a way to use beeswax with feathers on their hands to fly.

While Icarus died of melted beeswax, Daedalus successfully defected. David Cooper, a scientist from the Thomas E. Starzl Transplant Research Institute, continues to jokingly say that the success rate of a heterogeneous transplant can be up to 50%, at least in Greek mythology.

In fact, the history of the heterosexual transplant has been underway for at least 300 years. But it only succeeds when the transplant is as simple as blood vessels or skin. In the early 20th century, the Nobel Prize-winning surgeon Alexis Carrel was the first to successfully develop an animal blood vessel transplant method.

But as soon as the story turned to an organ transplant, it immediately turned into horror works. In the 1920s, Serge Voronoff, a Russian doctor working in France, came up with the idea of ​​chimp test for older men. The surgery is thought to stimulate sexual desire and is considered Viagra of the 20s.

In fact, Voronoff did not implant the entire chimp testicles into humans. He sliced ​​it into slices and inserted into the testes of the men. It is counted as a transplant at the cellular level rather than the organ. In Europe and in the US, at least several hundred people have opted for this type of transplant surgery and report that they are satisfied with the results.

John Brinkley, the "doctor" who performs goat graft surgery to humans in the United States.

Later, John Brinkley, an American doctor without a degree, did the same thing with goat testicles. Each surgery is performed by Brinkley at a price equivalent to USD 9,000 at the current exchange rate. The unique idea has turned him from a charlatan to a rich and famous man. Only thing, many of Brinkley's patients later died.

Further advanced heterosexual transplants were performed in the 1960s, with 13 patients receiving chimp kidney transplants. One of them has lived for nearly nine months. The 60s also witnessed an attempt to transplant hearts from monkeys to humans. Unfortunately, this patient only survived for no more than 2 hours. More optimistic, a man who receives liver from baboons can live 70 after surgery.

In the 1980s, research in the field of heterosexual transplantation began to heat up. The Danish scientist, Steen Willadsen, combined sheep and goat embryos to create a hybrid chimera between the two species and called " geep".

"It's a breakthrough look that shows that mammals are much more compatible than we ever thought ," FitzGerald said. "If you could combine goats and sheep together, then you What else can I do? "

You may be able to defeat the troubles from the immune system to create a creature that is half-human. You can create an immune system that is compatible with both parts of this organism. Biological dreams continue to be lifted after Dolly sheep was successfully cloned in the 90s.