Humster

A humster is a hybrid cell line made from a zona-free hamster oocyte fertilized with human sperm. 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.

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.

See also

References

  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. ↑ 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. ↑ 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.

Further reading