Humster

Humster

Humster

Single-celled hybrid of human and hamster

A humster is a hybrid cell line made from a zona-free hamster oocyte fertilized with human sperm.[1] It always consists of single cells, and cannot form a multi-cellular being. Humsters are usually destroyed before they divide into two cells; if isolated and left alone to divide, they would still be unviable.[2]

Humsters are routinely created mainly for two reasons:

Somatic cell hybrids between humans and hamsters or mice have been used for the mapping of various traits since at least the 1970s.[3]

See also

References

  1. [1]
    Yanagimachi, R.; Yanagimachi, H.; Rogers, B. J. (November 1976). "The Use of Zona-Free Animal Ova as a Test-System for the Assessment of the Fertilizing Capacity of Human Spermatozoa". Biology of Reproduction. 15 (4): 471–476. doi:10.1095/biolreprod15.4.471. ISSN 0006-3363. PMID 974200. S2CID 18988034.
  2. [2]
    Final Report of the Human Embryo Research Panel (Report). Bethesda, MD: National Institutes of Health. 27 September 1994. p. 96. as cited in Bonnicksen, Andrea (2009). Chimeras, Hybrids, and Interspecies Research Politics and Policymaking. Georgetown University Press. ISBN 9781589015746.
  3. [3]
    Griffiths, Anthony J.F.; Miller, Jeffrey H.; Suzuki, David T.; Lewontin, Richard C.; Gelbart, William M. (2002). An introduction to genetic analysis (7th ed.). New York, NY: W. H. Freeman. ISBN 978-0716735205.
  • Ballantyne, Angela (2004). "Humans and Hybrids: A Critique of the Western Moral Framework". Essays in Philosophy. 5 (2). Philosophy Documentation Center: 363–374. doi:10.5840/eip2004528.
  • Junca, Anne-Marie; Plachot, Michelle; Mandelbaum, Jacqueline (1983). "Evaluation of human sperm fertility by interspecific (human spermatozoa-hamster oocytes) in vitro fertilization". Acta Europea Fertilitatis. 14 (3): 191–196. ISSN 0587-2421. PMID 6670443.

Further reading


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