© DUSAN PETRICICLate
last year, Steve Goldman of the University of Rochester and his
colleagues reported that they had transplanted immature glial cells from
donated human fetuses into the brains of immunodeficient mouse pups.
These human glial cells matured into astrocytes and developed as the
primary astrocyte population in the newborn mouse brain. One unexpected
outcome of the team’s research, published in the Journal of Neuroscience
(34:16153-61), was that these human-mouse chimeras outperformed normal
mice almost fourfold in a variety of cognition tests, underscoring the
importance of astrocytes in regulating synaptic plasticity and neural
connectivity to enhance learning and memory. But the study also raised
important ethical considerations—namely, what biological properties
differentiate Homo sapiens from other organisms, and when should such “humanized” animals be afforded the rights that people currently enjoy.....
http://www.the-scientist.com//?articles.view/articleNo/43327/title/When-Does-a-Smart-Mouse-Become-Human-/
