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scienceStechnology
Tuesday, February 29. 2(XX)
Science Briefs
THE BATTALION
Page 5
Rescuing the Prairie Chicken
Scientists apply genetic engineering to save endangered birds
BY YOLANDA LUKASZEWSKI
The Battalion
Some would call it a super chicken.
It lays eggs. It tastes good. And now the
common White Leghorn Chicken has the
potential to repopulate an endangered bird
species.
Researchers at Texas A&M University
are using the White Leghorn Chicken as a
surrogate to produce chimeras of endan
gered Attwater’s Prairie Chickens.
A chimera is an animal with tissues from
another species. In this case, the White
Leghorn Chicken would have sex cells from
the Attwater’s Prairie Chicken.
By doing this, they hope to slow the de
cline in the endangered Attwater’s Prairie
Chicken population.
The team of researchers led by Dr. Luc
Berghman, assistant professor of Poultry
Science, includes Dr. Billy Hargis, Dr.
Mark Westhusin, and Dr. Ian Tizard. all pro
fessors of veterinary medicine. Tizard also
holds the endowed Schubot chair for Exot
ic Bird Health.
The researchers plan to harvest primor
dial germ cells — cells that ultimately be
come sperm cells in males and eggs in fe
males — from Prairie Chicken blood.
Those cells would then be inserted into
the White Leghorn Chicken.
The first generation born to the
Leghorn, the chimera, would look like the
Leghorn.
The second generation would be Attwa
ter’s Prairie Chickens. Siblings from two
White leghorn chickens
Attwater’s prairie chickens
Transfer of primordial germ cells at about 3
days of incubation from a prairie chicken
embryo to a white leghorn chicken embryo
Germ cell chimeras look like white leghorns
but produce prairie chicken eggs/sperm.
White leghorns produce up to 300 eggs per year.
Offspring from the germ cell chimeras are
100% prairie chicken.
(above) Dr. Luc Berghman, assistant professor in
Poultry Science, leads a team of A&M veterinary re
searchers to genetically engineer endangered bird
reproduction using chimeras.
(right) The chimera development process, using
White Leghorn Chickens to produce Prairie Chickens.
PHOTO BY SUSAN REDDING GRAPHIC BY ROBERT HYNECEK/Tiik Battalion
Marijuana may fight cancer
NEW YORK (AP) — Marijuana-like drugs eradicated
some brain cancers in rats and helped other animals
live longer, possibly hinting at a new approach for treat
ing the disease, researchers said.
Brain cancer experts said they aren’t impressed.
The study dealt with gliomas, the most common cat
egory of cancer arising in the brain. Gliomas are highly
lethal in people despite treatment with drugs, surgery
and radiation.
The rat study was published in the March issue of the
journal Nature Medicine. It was conducted by scientists
at the Complutense and Autonoma universities in
Madrid, Spain.
They injected glioma cells into the brains of rats to
produce tumors. Untreated rats died within 18 days.
Other rats were treated with drug infusions for seven
days through a tube leading to the tumor. Fifteen rats
got infusions of THC, the main active component in mar
ijuana. Tumors disappeared in three animals, and nine
other rats outlived the untreated ones, surviving up to
35 days.
When researchers used a different but similar drug,
five of 15 rats became tumor-free and four others out
lived untreated animals, the researchers said.
Dr. Philip Gutin, chief of neurosurgery at the Memor
ial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, said oth
er experimental therapies work better in rats. And the
paper doesn’t demonstrate that the effect came from
the drugs rather than simply the infusion of liquid into
the brain, he said.
Dr. Rolf Barth, who studies brain tumors at Ohio State
University, called the work interesting. But he said the
type of glioma cells used to create the tumors does not
provide a very good mimic of the human disease.
Kidney treatment shows hope
NEW YORK (AP) — A vaccine-like treatment wiped out
or shrank tumors in some patients whose kidney cancer
had spread elsewhere in their bodies, researchers said.
Experts called the results striking but cautioned that
the preliminary study of only 17 patients would have to
be confirmed by further work.
Tumors disappeared in four patients and shrank by
more than half in two others, researchers from the Uni
versity of Goettingen in Germany and elsewhere report
ed in the March issue of the journal Nature Medicine.
Cancer that has spread from the kidney is notoriously
difficult to treat, and doctors often turn to experimental
therapies.
In the new study, tumors in the lung, bones, lymph
nodes and elsewhere disappeared.
The German research was aimed at revving up the
immune system to attack tumors, much as an ordinary
vaccine primes the body to fight off germs. The study
used blood cells called dendritic cells, which normally
trigger an immune attack by presenting other blood cells
with bits of a target germ.
The scientists fused millions of tumor cells from each
patient to dendritic cells from donors, then injected the
hybrid cells back into the patient. These hybrids could then
alert the immune system by displaying bits of the patient’s
tumor.
Initially, patients were injected with the vaccina twice,
six weeRs apart. Those whose disease didn’t progress
continued to get boosters every three months. No seri
ous side effects appeared.
In three of the four patients whose tumors disap
peared, it happened within the first 12 weeks, the re
searchers reported.
parents would be genetically similar, but
not identical.
Primordial genn ceils would also be maintained in cul
ture, Berghman said, theoretically creating an unlimited
number of donor primordial genn cells.
The researchers chose White Leghorn Chickens to
serve as surrogates to the Prairie Chicken because they are
“laying machines,” according to Berghman. The Leghorns
can lay more than 300 eggs per year.
“They are wonderful animals,” Hargis said. “They’re
tough animals and they’re resistant to environmental
stress.”
Gary Vamer, A&M associate professor of philosophy,
said that some types of animal research should be en
dorsed, provided that scientists treat the animal with dig
nity during all phases of such research.
“This project sounds attractive from a wider range of
perspectives than simply enhancing agricultural produc
tivity,” Varner said. “Insofar as animal rights or animal
welfare are concerns, saving an endangered species sounds
more like the kind of goal that would justify invasive re
search on sentient animals than merely increasing farm
ers’ profits or lowering consumers’ costs.”
Determining if the White Leghorn Chicken can carry
the Attwater’s Prairie Chicken to term will be a hurdle in
the project, Berghman said.
“We’ll have to look at how the machinery
of the Leghorn donates yolk to the oocyte,” Berghman
said. The oocyte is an immature egg. The researchers do
not know if nutrients that the Leghorn provides its own
“Saving an endangered
species sounds more like
the kind of goal that
would justify invasive re
search”
— Dr. Gary Varner
animal research ethics expert
offspring will be adequate for the Attwater’s Prairie Chick
en.
In Texas, Attwater’s Prairie Chicken can be found in
only three counties, according to the National Wildlife
Foundation. The environmental group estimates that 56
birds live in the wild, and another 200 birds reside in cap
tive breeding programs.
With such a small number of prairie chickens, the ge
netic pool shrinks. Subsequent reproduction leads to in-
breeding.
Berghman and Hargis admitted that their project will
not improve the population’s genetic diversity.
“This project could tremendously delay ipbreeding,”
Hargis said. It would maintain the genetic line of birds that
do not frequently reproduce, and maximize the potential
for all of the Attwater’s Prairie Chickens to reproduce,
Hargis said.
Before they attempt to create chimeras of Attwater’s
Prairie Chickens, they will test their proposed method on
a more abundant bird in the same family, the pheasant.
If the project is successful with Attwater’s Prairie
Chickens, then the researchers will try to produce chimeras
of other endangered bird species.
“If we can do this with the chicken as the recipient, then
we can find other domestic species that are larger, perhaps
a goose or turkey, that can be used for artificial production
of whooping cranes,” said Hargis.
Whooping cranes are another endangered bird.
Berghman and Hargis are optimistic about the project.
“It could be another contribution of poultry to the world if
chickens can be used to repopulate some wild species of
birds,” Hargis said.
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