7月26日，《自然》学术期刊报道称，日本政府批准首例“人兽杂交胚胎”实验。“人兽杂交胚胎”并非直接由人和动物交配产生，而是将一种物种的细胞引入另一物种胚胎当中。

据悉，研究小组计划先在老鼠胚胎中培育人类细胞，然后将这些胚胎移植到代孕动物体内。最终目的系为了让动物能长出适配人类的器官，以解决目前移植器官紧缺的问题。对此，部分生物伦理学家认为实验存在一定风险。

Some bioethicists are disturbed by the possibility that human cells implanted into animals may behave unexpectedly, and could affect an animal's brain or cognition.

一些生物伦理学家对此担心，这会造成人类细胞可能会偏离目标器官的发育，进入发育中动物的大脑中，并潜在影响其认知。

Researchers in Japan plan to transplant human cells into mouse and rat embryos. Above is a mouse embryo on Day 11 of developmen

Japanese Scientists Plan to Create Human-Mouse Hybrids. Here's How

Some unusual embryos may soon be growing in Japan: those of human-mouse and human-rat hybrids, news sources are reporting.

一些不同寻常的人鼠和人鼠杂交的胚胎可能很快就会在日本生长出来 

embryo 胚，胚胎

in embryo 在胚胎阶段，在萌芽阶段；尚未成熟

A research group in Japan received approval from a committee in the Japanese government on July 24 to move forward with an experiment that will put a type of human stem cells (cells that can grow into almost any cell) into animal embryos.

a committee in the Japanese government 日本政府委员会

human stem cells 人类干细胞

Once inside the embryos, the human cells — called induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells — may grow into specific organs. If all goes well, the researchers plan to eventually grow human organs in other animals, such as pigs. Perhaps these organs could one day be used for organ transplants in people, the researchers said. 

一旦进入胚胎，被称为诱导多能干细胞(iPS)的人类细胞可能会生长成特定的器官。

induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells 诱导多能干细胞

organ transplant 器官移植

"I personally thought it was very exciting" that the Japanese government approved this project, said Ronald Parchem, an assistant professor of neuroscience at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, who is not involved with the new research. "It has tremendous potential to help many people who are suffering from a broad variety of diseases or in need of different types of tissue or organ replacement."

assistant professor of neuroscience 神经科学助理教授

There are, however, scientific and ethical questions that may arise as this research progresses.

ethical questions 伦理问题

According to Asahi, researchers will take fertilized eggs from rodents that have been gene-edited to remove the ability to produce a pancreas themselves. To this, they will add human iPS cells to create hybrid animal-human embryos.

fertilized egg 受精卵

fertilize 施肥;使受精；使受孕；使受粉

These in turn would be implanted into a host animal, in this case a rat or mouse, and allowed to grow.

implant（手术中）植入，移植

According to researchers, the goal of the experiment is to create organs viable for transplant into humans.

viable 能生长发育的；可以存活的

"Finally, we are in a position to start serious studies in this field after 10 years of preparation," said Hiromitsu Nakauchi, a researcher at the Institute of Medical Science of the University of Tokyo, according to Asahi.

"We don't expect to create human organs immediately, but this allows us to advance our research based upon the know-how we have gained up to this point."

Japan had previously banned such experiments.

It reversed its decision in March of this year after consulting with experts.

reverse its decision 改变决定

The government has said that experiments like these can take place as long as researchers take steps to prevent the birth of a creature that contains a mix of animal and human genetics.

human genetics 人类遗传学

Researchers will also monitor the animal-human hybrids once they are born for up to two years and will suspend the experiment if they detect that brains inside the growing animals contain more than 30% human cells, Asahi said.

While other countries have experimented on creating human-animal embryos, Japan is now the first country to support experiments that will allow the animals with human cells to come to full term.

full term 孕期完整的;妊娠期满;足月

Scientists in the US have experimented with pig-human hybrid fetuses and allowed them to develop for three to four weeks before destroying them, as required by US ethics regulations.

ethics regulations 道德规范

But according to Jun Wu, a biologist at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, only about 1 in 100,000 cells in the fetuses were human.

In the UK, scientists at King's College London, Newcastle University, and Warwick University created dozens of hybrid embryos that were used to create embryonic stem cells that could potentially treat a wide range of illnesses.

hybrid embryo 杂交胚

embryonic stem cells 胚胎干细胞

Concerns about the ethical implications of such research remain

Some bioethicists are disturbed by the possibility that human cells implanted into animals may behave unexpectedly, and could affect an animal's brain or cognition.

一些生物伦理学家对此担心，这会造成人类细胞可能会偏离目标器官的发育，进入发育中动物的大脑中，并潜在影响其认知。

cognition 认识；认识能力

"It is problematic, both ethically and from a safety aspect, to place human iPS cells, which are still capable of transforming into all types of cells, into the fertilized eggs of rats and mice," said Jiro Nudeshima, a researcher specializing in the ethical implications of life science research, according to Asahi.

Nakauchi, the researcher proposing the experiment, dismissed concerns, saying that his experiments are focused on the creation of specific organs, and not the development of a new species.

"We are trying to do targeted organ generation, so the cells go only to the pancreas," he said, according to Nature.

他在实验设计中已经考虑到了这些问题，正在尝试定向器官生成，细胞只进入胰腺。

pancreas 胰脏，胰腺

He added that in his previous experiments, the number of human cells inside of a sheep embryo has been extremely small.

"The number of human cells grown in the bodies of sheep is extremely small, like one in thousands or one in tens of thousands," he said, according to Asahi.

"At that level, an animal with a human face will never be born," Nakauchi said.

来源：livescience，businessinsider

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