By CLAUDIA JOSEPH - More by this author »

Last updated at 21:26pm on 24th March 2007

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Scientists have created the world's first human-sheep chimera - which has the body of a sheep and half-human organs.

The sheep have 15 per cent human cells and 85 per cent animal cells - and their evolution brings the prospect of animal organs being transplanted into humans one step closer.

Professor Esmail Zanjani, of the University of Nevada, has spent seven years and £5million perfecting the technique, which involves injecting adult human cells into a sheep's foetus.

He has already created a sheep liver which has a large proportion of human cells and eventually hopes to precisely match a sheep to a transplant patient, using their own stem cells to create their own flock of sheep.

The process would involve extracting stem cells from the donor's bone marrow and injecting them into the peritoneum of a sheep's foetus. When the lamb is born, two months later, it would have a liver, heart, lungs and brain that are partly human and available for transplant.

"We would take a couple of ounces of bone marrow cells from the patient,' said Prof Zanjani, whose work is highlighted in a Channel 4 programme tomorrow.

"We would isolate the stem cells from them, inject them into the peritoneum of these animals and then these cells would get distributed throughout the metabolic system into the circulatory system of all the organs in the body. The two ounces of stem cell or bone marrow cell we get would provide enough stem cells to do about ten foetuses. So you don't just have one organ for transplant purposes, you have many available in case the first one fails."

At present 7,168 patients are waiting for an organ transplant in Britain alone, and two thirds of them are expected to die before an organ becomes available.

Scientists at King's College, London, and the North East Stem Cell Institute in Newcastle have now applied to the HFEA, the Government's fertility watchdog, for permission to start work on the chimeras.

But the development is likely to revive criticisms about scientists playing God, with the possibility of silent viruses, which are harmless in animals, being introduced into the human race.

Dr Patrick Dixon, an international lecturer on biological trends, warned: "Many silent viruses could create a biological nightmare in humans. Mutant animal viruses are a real threat, as we have seen with HIV."

Animal rights activists fear that if the cells get mixed together, they could end up with cellular fusion, creating a hybrid which would have the features and characteristics of both man and sheep. But Prof Zanjani said: "Transplanting the cells into foetal sheep at this early stage does not result in fusion at all."

ew

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you'll go to hell for what your dirty mind is thinking

the rest of us, however, have our fingers crossed.

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If you ever feel useless and depressed, remember: one day you were the fastest spermatozoon of all.

Mutant animal viruses are a real threat...

You see, this was the part where I stopped getting excited.

Oooh, just like in "Pig Heart Boy."

weird

And there is more...

The sheep created that is 15% human has a human vagina.

Oh ew.
You just know that someone's gonna try to have sex with it...

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Trev_Mc_Don no i really hate unfunny people like u go slit your wrists

i know that maybe the sheep organs might give humans more hope for life, but.... it would have been so much more interesting if they inserted human head cells into the foetus instead. or even more interesting, they should insert them into a whale and make mermaids.

this would be AWESOME.

some sort of modern day satyr

That made me puke my coffee up.

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before you know it they'll make it us eat this shit.


JUST LEAVE IT THE FUCK ALONE. They don't any longterm effects of this frakenstein crap.

15% human ?

Wouldn't the cynic say that most people are sheep already ?

ewe

"Vomits"

C'monnn, Invasion of the Body Snatchers-style human-headed dogs!

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"the height of arrogance is the height of control of those who create God in their own image"

people already do that...

im excited. i want my new kidneys now.

I know that people already have sex with sheep, but you can guarantee that someone is going to try & justify fucking this sheep cause it's not fully bestiality since it's 15% human.

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Trev_Mc_Don no i really hate unfunny people like u go slit your wrists

no one can make you eat shit that you don't want to, you more than anyone else in this thread should know that. unless you fuck up so badly that you end up being forcefed in a hospital.

& btw I think you're not getting the proper nutrition, you leave words out of sentences far too often.

lol!!