Humster
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A humster is a hybrid cell line made from hamster oocyte fertilized with human sperm. It always consists of single cells, and cannot form a multi-cellular being.
Humsters are routinely created for mainly two reasons:
- To avoid legal issues with working with pure human embryonic stem cell lines.
- To assess the viability of human sperm for in vitro fertilization.
Somatic cell hybrids between hamster or mouse and man have been used for mapping of various traits at least since the 1970s.
See also
References
- Humans and Hybrids: A Critique of the Western Moral Framework
- Junca et al. (1983) Evaluation of human sperm fertility by interspecific (human spermatozoa-hamster oocytes) in vitro fertilization. Acta Eur. Fertil. 14, 191-196
Further reading
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