DEVELOPMENT OF MONKEYS PRODUCED BY EMBRYO SPLITTING & SPERM INJECTION

本子项目是利用由NIH/NCRR资助的中心赠款提供的资源的众多研究子项目之一。子项目和研究者（PI）可能已经从另一个NIH来源获得了主要资金，因此可以在其他CRISP条目中表示。列出的机构是中心的，不一定是研究者的机构。现在或将来发现的基因功能的实验研究进展主要取决于有适当的动物模型。同样，学习如何操纵基因来改变解剖、生理或行为，并确定这些操作在灵长类动物（包括人类）中的安全性，取决于适当的动物模型。解决这些问题的一个重要方法是控制和操纵同卵双胞胎的基因，他们在受孕时具有相同的基因组。最近，一种将灵长类动物的4-8个细胞胚胎（桑葚胚期）分裂成单个细胞的方法得到了发展。这些细胞被植入代孕母亲体内，代孕母亲携带一个胎儿到足月。代孕母亲可能是也可能不是真正的亲生母亲。给予适当的实验技术，这些同卵双胞胎胎儿可以作为控制和实验对象，在研究中操纵几乎任何方面的基因组，母亲，胎儿环境，受试者的解剖和生理，和/或出生后环境。使用胚胎分裂双胞胎的这些潜在模型的效用在很大程度上取决于双胞胎在解剖、生长、生理和行为上的相似程度。本研究的两个主要目的是：(1)确定猕猴受试者在广泛的生长、生理和行为特征方面的双胞胎相似性程度；(2)确定胚胎分裂和代孕过程是否会对这些特征产生任何异常。

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Progress in experimentally studying the functions of genes discovered now or in the future depends primarily on having appropriate animal models. Similarly, learning how to manipulate genes to alter anatomy, physiology, or behavior, and determining the safety of these manipulations in primates, including humans, depends on appropriate animal models. An important approach to these issues concerns controlling and manipulating the genes of identical twins, who at conception have an identical genome. Recently, a procedure has been developed in which the 4-8 cell embryo of primates (morula stage) is split into individual cells. These cells are implanted into surrogate mothers, who carry a single fetus to term. The surrogate mother may or may not be the actual biological mother. Given appropriate experimental techniques, these identical twin fetuses can serve as control and experimental subjects in studies manipulating almost any aspect of the genome, the mother, the fetal environment, the subject's anatomy and physiology, and/or the postnatal environment. The utility of these potential models using embryo split twins depends largely on exactly how similar the twins are in their anatomy, growth, physiology, and behavior. The two major purposes of this research are (1) to determine the degree of twin similarity in macaque monkey subjects across a wide range of growth, physiological, and behavioral characteristics, and (2) determine whether the embryo splitting and surrogate mothering procedure produces any abnormalities in these characteristics.