Humster

Humster

A Humster is a hybrid cell line made from hamster oocyte fertilized with human sperm routinely created for mainly two reasons:
* To avoid legal issues with working with pure human embryonic stem cell lines.
* To assess the viability of human sperm for in vitro fertilization.

Somatic cell hybrids between hamster or mouse and man have been used for mapping of various traits at least since the 1970s.

Ethical discussions

Several, primarily Catholic, countries have banned "in vitro" generation of hybrid cell lines. The ethical issue often raised is the idea that:

* Human embryos get their inherently "human" qualities (soul) at the moment of fertilization - a philosophy adopted to a varying extent by many countries in their legal regulations about ES cell lines.
* Animals lack a soul

The existence of hybrid cell lines would seem to cause a logical conflict for people that hold the two above statements for true.

References

* [http://www.humboldt.edu/~essays/ballantyne.html Humans and Hybrids: A Critique of the Western Moral Framework]
*Junca "et al." (1983) Evaluation of human sperm fertility by interspecific (human spermatozoa-hamster oocytes) "in vitro" fertilization. "Acta Eur. Fertil." 14, 191-196

Further reading

* [http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/109927295/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0 Analysis of the first cell cycle in the cross between hamster eggs and human sperm]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • humster — “humster”. Название “гибрида” хомячка и человека [human ˟ hamster], получаемого в результате попадания спермиев человека в яйцеклетку хомячка после разрушения вителлинового слоя <zona pellucida>; развиваться не способны и используются для… …   Молекулярная биология и генетика. Толковый словарь.

  • HUMSTER — — название гибрида хомячка и человека (human Ч hamster), полученного в результате попадания спермиев человека в яйцеклетку хомячка после разрушения вителлинового слоя. Гибридные особи не способны развиваться, их используют для анализа хромосомного… …   Генетика. Энциклопедический словарь

  • humster — …   Useful english dictionary

  • Hybrid (biology) — In biology and specifically, genetics, the term hybrid has several meanings, all referring to the offspring of sexual reproduction.[1] In general usage, hybrid is synonymous with heterozygous: any offspring resulting from the mating of two… …   Wikipedia

  • Vacanti mouse — The Vacanti mouse was a laboratory mouse that had what looked like a human ear grown on its back. The ear was actually an ear shaped cartilage structure grown by seeding human cartilage cells into a biodegradable ear shaped mold. Contents 1 The… …   Wikipedia

  • Рыбология — [[]] Рыбология Fish Hooks …   Википедия

  • Список серий мультсериала «Рыбология» — Здесь предоставлен список американского диснеевского мультсериала «Рыбология». В данный момент транслируется на американском Канале Disney, и в России на российском Канале Disney. Сезон 1 (2010 2011) # Дата выхода Название серии Описание 1 3… …   Википедия

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”