AMERICAN scientists have successfully mixed artificial human cells with the embryos of a chicken in a weird science experiment to grow new bone and nerve structures.
The study was carried out by a research team at the Rockefeller University in New York, and made use of embryos from the birds and artificial cells designed to replicate human tissue.
By grafting petri dish-grown human cells onto the embryo of a chicken the scientists were able to observe how cells organise themselves.
The scientific first was published this week in the science journal Nature where researchers unveiled the inner workings of so-called "organiser cells" - which shape how the human body forms.
Dr Ali Brivanlou said: “No one knew what happens after the ball of cells attaches itself to the uterus.”
The experiment could help combat the long-running ethical issues surrounding the use of human embryos in laboratory experiments.
Countries like the US ban the use of embryos more than 14-days-old- roughly the same time organiser cells start to form.
In these new tests, researchers bypassed the rule by growing embryo-like structures derived from human embryonic cells.
The cells were then grafted onto 12-hour-old chicken embryos which are roughly the equivalent of a 14 day human embryo.
Astonishingly, the researchers noted as the chicken embryo grew, organiser cells dictated the formation of a second chicken nervous system.
Martin Pera, a stem-cell researcher at the Jackson Laboratory in Maine, said the findings opened up new avenues of studying how early development defects occur.
He said: “There’s quite a lot there that this system will lead to.”
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