Parabiosis
The term parabiosis ( para - Greek: next to, over, at; bios - Greek: life) is a name for a relationship system between two types of organisms ( parabionts ), whereby either only one partner has an advantage without harming the other, or one there is an indifferent relationship.
In ecology , the term is often used to distinguish it from symbiotic and parasitic relationships. As a result, only one partner benefits from parabiosis, while the relationship remains neutral for the other. In ecology, parabiosis is usually a synonym for probiosis and carpose .
This condition occurs naturally in fish , for example , in which a dwarf male has grown together with a female and is nourished by its circulatory system ( deep-sea frogfish ), but it can also occur as a defect (" Siamese twins ") or artificially caused by an operative connection.
Another controversial method in animal experiments , in which two organisms are joined by an operation to develop stem cells , is called parabiosis. With their help, physical defects are to be healed or entire organs to be grown. From 1905 onwards, inspired by Paul Leopold Friedrich , Ferdinand Sauerbruch carried out such physiological experiments with "parabiotic animals" in Greifswald and Marburg , which he himself surgically combined. This practice has not been approved in Germany since 1987 for reasons of animal law. There was only one of these experiments in Switzerland and that was in 1988.
In the past, experiments have been carried out with rats in which an old and a young rat have been connected to one another by skin flaps. It had been shown that, due to the parabiosis, the cells of the old rat regenerated and those of the young rat had aged considerably until an equilibrium was established between them. According to research, further attempts will be made in the near future to explain this phenomenon and possibly transfer it to larger organisms.
Individual evidence
- ^ Klaus Wegmann : Meyers Small Lexicon - Ecology. 1987, p. 214.
- ↑ Ferdinand Sauerbruch: That was my life. Kindler & Schiermeyer, Bad Wörishofen 1951; Licensed edition for Bertelsmann Lesering, Gütersloh 1956, p. 103.
- ↑ Christoph Drösser : The Elixir. In: NZZ Folio , August 2015.
- ↑ Animal experiment: Researchers are not allowed to sew mice together. In: Spiegel Online from August 8, 2007.