Photograph: Sean Smith for the GuardianGrowing human organs inside other animals has taken another step away from science-fiction, with researchers announcing they have grown sheep embryos containing human cells. “About one in 10,000 cells in these sheep embryos are human,” said Ross. The hope is that the human cells introduced to such embryos would grow to replace the missing organ. Nakauchi also played down concerns: “The contribution of human cells so far is very small. “We have published several papers showing we can target the region, so we can avoid human cells differentiating in to the human brain or human gonads.”Other potential issues includethat viruses within the DNA of the host could infect human cells, while the human organ might contain blood vessels composed of cells from the “host” animal.

Source: The Guardian February 17, 2018 21:00 UTC