Scientists Create First Transgenic Monkeys
Posted on: Wednesday, 27 May 2009, 15:25 CDT
Scientists have reported the first success in developing transgenic monkeys, with an inserted gene that causes their skin to glow green under a special light.
Researchers hope the development will aid them in studying the impacts and possible cures of human Parkinson’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS.
Scientists Erika Sasaki and Hideyuki Okano of the Keio University School of Medicine in Japan used a virus to transmit the green florescent protein of jellyfish into embryos of marmosets, which were implanted into a female monkey.
Four out of five embryos were born containing the spliced gene, researchers said in the journal Nature.
"The birth of this transgenic marmoset baby is undoubtedly a milestone," stem cell expert Dr. Gerald Schatten, of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and Shoukhrat Mitalipov, of Oregon Health and Sciences University, said in a commentary in the journal.
"Transgenic marmosets are potentially useful models for research into infectious diseases, immunology and neurological disorders, for example," researchers wrote.
The inserted gene will make tissues glow when exposed to ultraviolet light. The procedure has been widely used in laboratory mice, but scientists have long hopes for an animal model whose anatomy is closely related to humans.
"This is the first case ever established in the world that an introduced gene was successfully inherited (by) the next generation in primates," researchers said in a statement.
"At the moment we use mice with mutant genes that are associated with Parkinson's to search for new drugs to treat the condition," Dr. Kieran Breen, director of Research and Development at Britain's Parkinson's Disease Society, said in a statement.
"Because non-human primates are much closer to humans than mice genetically, the successful creation of transgenic marmosets means that we will have a new animal model to work with."
Researchers have previously inserted genes to rhesus macaques, but the new project will allow them to create colonies of transgenic monkeys through breeding rather than using implanted embryos.
"Great advances in pre-clinical research can be expected using these models," scientists said.
"Transgenic marmosets are potentially useful models for research into infectious diseases, immunology and neurological disorders, for example," they wrote.
Okano told reporters he was most focused on using the process to study Parkinson’s disease and ALS, both of which are incurable nerve disorders.
For some experts, however, the ethics of genetic engineering remains in question.
"There's also a very important ethical debate, firstly about the animals themselves and secondly about what this might lead to in the future, whether it might be ethically justified to genetically engineer humans," Helen Wallace, of GeneWatch UK, a British NGO that monitors the ethics of gene research, told AFP.
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Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports
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