Creation of human-rabbit embryos condemned as barbaric

SCIENTISTS have created hybrid human-rabbit embryos by mixing DNA from both species, it was claimed yesterday.

The research, reported by scientists in China, was fiercely condemned by pro-life campaigners who described it as “barbaric”.

More than 100 of the hybrids are said to have been made by fusing human skin cells with rabbit eggs.

The resulting embryos were allowed to develop in laboratory dishes for several days before the scientists cannibalised them to extract embryonic stem cells.

These are the body’s “master” cells, with the potential to become any kind of tissue. Experts hope in future they can be used to grow replacement cells for treating a wide range of diseases such as Parkinson’s and diabetes.

Scientists in the United States have previously mixed human cells and cows’ eggs in a similar attempt to generate a source of embryonic stem cells, without success. Earlier this year another team of scientists reported the creation of a hermaphrodite embryo containing male and female cells.

The Chinese scientists described their success in the latest edition of Cell Research, the Washington Post reported yesterday.

Although peer-reviewed, the journal is not widely known outside academic circles. It is affiliated with the Shanghai Institute of Cell Biology and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Some experts are said to have been frustrated by the lack of detail in the paper.The team, led by Hui Zhen Sheng, from Shanghai Second Medical University, claims to have fused human skin tissue cells with rabbit eggs from which the nuclei had been removed.

More than 100 embryos survived to the blastocyst stage, a ball of no more than 60 cells the size of a pinhead.

The vast majority of DNA in the embryos was human, but the rabbit eggs contributed a small amount of DNA contained outside the nucleus in the rod-like bodies called mitochondria which supply energy.Britain’s pro-life charity, Life, reacted “with disgust” at the news.

Spokesman Patrick Cusworth said: “Such abuses of early life, where a new living and genetically unique individual is deliberately created, abused and destroyed with such contempt, must surely send shivers down the spines of the general public.”

He said Life was calling for a worldwide ban on all research involving the creation, manipulation and destruction of human life.