- Joined
- Oct 16, 2007
- Messages
- 2,902
- Reaction score
- 1,381
- Gender
- Hidden
- Country
-
One of the unexplained tenants about Dr. Kanou’s ghoulification surgery and the Quinx surgery is how the kakuhou/kagune, a foreign organ, is implanted within human test subjects avoids transplant rejection. Using real-life science, Ishida-sensei can give a general explanation for why kakuhou can be transplanted between people with little to no fear of transplant rejection. Several plausible explanations exist, from gene splicing to the kakuhou serving as a controlled cancer.
Artificial hybrids like Kaneki and Takizawa are created by implanting the kakuhou of a ghoul donor into a human recipient. Recall that the kakuhou is a sac-like organ found only in ghouls. The purpose of this organ is to store Rc cells. The nutrition contained in Rc cells are absorbed by the ghoul and transported to the kakuhou for storage. The Rc cells can then be released from the kakuhou, piercing the skin and forming the kagune, a ghoul’s predatory organ.
Key note: I use the term ‘kakuhou’ and ‘kagune’ interchangeably with one another.
Kakuhou are not your run-of-the-mill organ. Arguably the defining trait of the organ, as well as the kagune it creates, is that the kakuhou has limited sentience. Examples include the following:
Exhibit A: The Arata armor consuming Shinohara and limiting his movements.
Exhibit B: Rc walls will open and/or close when exposed to a ghoul’s kagune.
Exhibit C: The kagune of one of Dr. Kanou’s failed test subjects ends up devouring itself.
Exhibit D: Nutcracker’s kagune reacts to external stimuli.
I’m not arguing that kagune are sentient in the sense that they have intelligence, but it is clear that kagune, and the kakuhou, react to external stimuli, sort of like how a Venus flytrap closes after two of its three trigger hairs have been stimulated. We have strong circumstantial evidence that kagune function in a manner akin to independent operational cells.
This trait gives Ishida-sensei several methods to play with that explain why the kakuhou avoid transplant rejection by altering the human recipient’s phentoype and genotype. One explanation is that the kakuhou is indeed an independent, living entity. In real-life, there is an example that Ishida-sensei can use to explain how normal humans are genetically altered into one-eyed ghouls.
The green sea slug, Elysia chlorotica, is but one example of “solar-powered sea slugs”. Green sea slugs engage in kleptoplasty, a process by which a predator literally steals photosynthesis genes from the prey that it eats. In the case of the green sea slug, it acquires its photosynthesis genes from the chloroplasts it acquires from eating algae. Green sea slugs remove everything from the algae cells they consume save the chloroplasts. The chloroplasts are then “eaten” by digestive cells, where the organelles continue to photosynthesize for up to nine months—that’s even longer than they would perform in algae.
For a long time though no one knew how the slugs maintain these pilfered chloroplasts. DNA sequencing has revealed that the sea slug’s chromosomes contains genes from the algae that code for both chloroplast proteins and chlorophyll synthesis. The gene is transplanted into the slug chromosome and transmitted to the next generation of slugs. These sea slugs are one of the only few known examples of functional gene transfer from one multicellular species to another. When a successful transfer of genes between species occurs, evolution happens overnight instead of thousands of years.
As to how Ishida-sensei could apply this to the story, the functional gene transfer is a more extreme version of what goes in Elysia chlorotica. The kakuhou inserts genes into its human host (e.g. Kaneki), starting a series of chain reactions that cause the human host to “evolve” into a one-eyed ghoul. A byproduct of this development is that the host’s immune system recognizes the foreign material as “self” instead of “foreign” since the host begins to resemble its kakuhou donor.
Another way of thinking about the process is how xenomorphs replicate in the Alien franchise. Xenomorphs require a host organism in order to reproduce and have several life cycles. One of the unique abilities of Xenomorphs is that they inherit traits from their hosts (e.g. a Predator’s mandible), meaning that Xenomorphs can read, convert, and incorporate DNA from their hosts into themselves.
A similar process occurs between the kakuhou and human host. Perhaps the Rc cells from the kakuhou devour and assimilate the human host’s Rc cells. Over time, most, if not all, the human host’s cells are replaced, helping the kakuhou avoid transplant rejection. Epigenetics could also be involved. Two other methods involve cancer-like growths and viral replication.
At first glance, it seems weird. What does cancer have to do with ghoulification? The connection involves the godly regenerative power that (half) ghouls possess. Given enough time and nutrition, ghouls can regenerate just about anything, even cells that normally cannot regenerate in real-life (e.g. nerve cells). The secret to this regenerative power seems to lie within the unique nature of Rc cells.
Red child cells, or Rc cells, comprise a large part of a ghoul’s body. The origin of the name stems from how individual cells resemble curled-up fetuses. People have speculated that Rc cells could be mutated stem cells. Like human stem cells, Rc cells are pluripotent, or have the ability of differentiation. Differentiation is the process by which cells diverge and adopt specific functions, like stem cells transforming into red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. What controls differentiation is gene expression, or epigenetics.
What else is pluripotent? Cancer cells. Did you know that a baby with a tumor in its head contained a nearly perfect foot and the formation of another food, a hand, and a thigh? Did you know that a woman’s ovarian tumor contained brain cells, which caused her body to trigger an immune response to attack her own brain leading to bizarre hallucinations? Did you know that a Japanese woman’s tumor had a head with fine, downy hair, and in the center of its forehead, one fully formed eye cloaked by thick, long eyelashes? By the way, closer inspection of the tumor revealed an ear, four human limbs, a brain, spinal nerve, intestines, bones, and blood vessels–even a jaw that housed perfectly-formed teeth. And freakish cancer incidents are nothing new. In Spain, archeologists found the remains of a Roman woman who lived 1600 years ago. Said woman had a calcified tumor in her pelvis which had bone and four deformed teeth embedded within it.
Again, ghouls can regenerate just about anything if given enough time and nutrition. In a sense, their regeneration is like a “controlled cancer”. Regarding artificial hybrids, something to consider is why so few humans are ideal test subjects for ghoulification. Dr. Kanou’s surgery has a success rate of ~0.25%. The Quinx surgery is vastly superior, but even it has its limitations. Not everyone can become a Quinx as only a few candidates have passed the aptitude test. And then there’s variations to consider. The Yasuhisa twins are not as successful as Kaneki just as Amon is not as successful as Takizawa. For the Quinx, only one, Mutsuki, has exhibited any signs of cannibalism.
Something to consider with human test subjects is their risk of ROS. ROS disease is a rare disease that affects one in every 1-3 million people. Rc cells grow out of control, causing the victim to grow kagune-growths, reminiscent of a tumor or cyst. What would happen if this process could be controlled? In theory, the human would develop an anatomy similar to Kaneki or Eto. Let’s run with the assumption that there is a genetic factor to ROS too since it functions eerily similar to tumors. This “ROS oncogene” would be the deciding factor in whether a human successfuly undergoes ghoulification or whether a natural-born hybrid is born like Eto instead of born like Arima. The ROS oncogene serves as a substitute from what the child would normally receive if its mother was a ghoul.
Expanding upon this line of thought may also explain why transplanted kakuhous avoid transplant rejection. Cancer cells have a variety of mechanism to avoid detection by the immune system. One method is to disguise itself as “normal cells”. Perhaps the kakuhou mimics the human’s Rc cells (the immune system is known to reject foreign stem cells), avoiding transplant rejection. In the process, these “cancer cells” metastasize and alter the human body over time, altering the human’s genotype into that of a hybrid.
A final means of the kakuhou avoiding transplant rejection is viral replication. Viruses come in all sorts of flavors. You have bacteriophages, viruses that attack bacteria, virophages, viruses that attack viruses, etc. Viruses also have profound effects on people. Viruses are suspected culprits in diseases such as cancer, obesity, and mental illness. Viruses have also had a profound effect on human evolution. Did you know that as much as 8% of your genome may have originated from viruses? Perhaps viruses played a similar role in the evolution of ghouls too.
You’d think with Kaneki he was suffering from something like rabies, a virus that attacks the brain and instigates behavioral changes, after forcibly turned into a hybrid. Agitation? Anxiety? Hallucinations? All this and more so. What is interesting to note about Kaneki is that he developed cravings (as in the psychological and physical need for human flesh) after his transformation.
In real-life, viruses are known to change the mind’s hardware. One example is rabies, which causes agitation, irritation, and hallucinations in humans. The Borna disease virus is known to cause hyperactivity, somnolence, depression, and agitation in a variety of animals. Although a causal link hasn’t been established, traces of the virus in humans have been found in significant numbers of depressed and schizophrenic patients. The ATCV-1 chlorovirus, which usually infects algae, can infect humans and is believed to slow people’s visual motor speed and visual processing.
Exhibit A: Him staring at one girl’s thighs is but one example of several.
Exhibit B: Eating human flesh leaves him euphoric.
Exhibit C: Loses self-control and attacks Yomo in an attempt to satiate his hunger.
The transformation into a half-ghoul is not only physical, it is also mental. Like Kaneki, Takizawa too has exhibited similar traits. Notable signs are his cravings for human flesh and heightened aggression.
Is it possible that the kakuhou contains something akin to a virus that genetically alters its human host into a one-eyed ghoul? In real-life, domesticated viruses exist. Polydnaviruses form a symbiotic relationship with parasitic wasps, like braconids. About 17,000 braconids exist, all of whom are parasitic. Interestingly, each braconid has its own unique virus, but they all do the same thing: They suppress the caterpillar’s immune system and tweak its metabolism to favor the growing wasp. If not for the viruses, the wasp grubs would be killed by their host bodies.
Interestingly, this relationship goes both ways. Bracoviruses cannot replicate themselves. They can only be manufactured in the ovaries of the wasps, and once they get into the caterpillars, their life cycle ends. In a sense, they are not true viruses. Instead, they’re like secretions of the wasp’s body.
Getting back on topic, in theory, a transplanted kakuhou possesses a virus that alters both the genotype and phenotype of its human host, turning him into a one-eyed ghoul. The virus has four targets: (1) the mind, (2) the digestive system, (3) the immune system, and (4) Rc cells. Attacking the mind renders the human’s mind to seek human flesh and rewards feelings of pleasure for doing so. Attacking the digestive system renders the human unable to eat anything save the flesh of humans or ghouls. Attacking the immune system renders the kakuhou avoiding transplant rejection. Attacking the Rc cells renders the human capable of ghoul-like regeneration and possibly forming a kakuja.
Assuming such a thing exists, certain factors may be needed for the virus to be active. First, a large amount of viral material is needed (e.g. a ghoul kissing a human won’t do anything). Second, the human may need an appropriate genetic sequence to be a success (e.g the “ROS oncogene” I mention previously). Third, the virus won’t replicate unless the host has an implanted kakuhou, similar to the viruses within parasitic wasps needing the wasp’s ovaries to replicate. Consequently,Kaneki’s phenotype, as well as genotype, is transformed into that of a half-ghoul as a byproduct of the kakuhou avoiding transplant rejection. As to why he doesn’t transform into a full ghoul, who knows. Genetics is complicated and I don’t feel like typing a novel.
Artificial hybrids like Kaneki and Takizawa are created by implanting the kakuhou of a ghoul donor into a human recipient. Recall that the kakuhou is a sac-like organ found only in ghouls. The purpose of this organ is to store Rc cells. The nutrition contained in Rc cells are absorbed by the ghoul and transported to the kakuhou for storage. The Rc cells can then be released from the kakuhou, piercing the skin and forming the kagune, a ghoul’s predatory organ.
Key note: I use the term ‘kakuhou’ and ‘kagune’ interchangeably with one another.
Kakuhou are not your run-of-the-mill organ. Arguably the defining trait of the organ, as well as the kagune it creates, is that the kakuhou has limited sentience. Examples include the following:
Exhibit A: The Arata armor consuming Shinohara and limiting his movements.
This trait gives Ishida-sensei several methods to play with that explain why the kakuhou avoid transplant rejection by altering the human recipient’s phentoype and genotype. One explanation is that the kakuhou is indeed an independent, living entity. In real-life, there is an example that Ishida-sensei can use to explain how normal humans are genetically altered into one-eyed ghouls.
The green sea slug, Elysia chlorotica, is but one example of “solar-powered sea slugs”. Green sea slugs engage in kleptoplasty, a process by which a predator literally steals photosynthesis genes from the prey that it eats. In the case of the green sea slug, it acquires its photosynthesis genes from the chloroplasts it acquires from eating algae. Green sea slugs remove everything from the algae cells they consume save the chloroplasts. The chloroplasts are then “eaten” by digestive cells, where the organelles continue to photosynthesize for up to nine months—that’s even longer than they would perform in algae.
For a long time though no one knew how the slugs maintain these pilfered chloroplasts. DNA sequencing has revealed that the sea slug’s chromosomes contains genes from the algae that code for both chloroplast proteins and chlorophyll synthesis. The gene is transplanted into the slug chromosome and transmitted to the next generation of slugs. These sea slugs are one of the only few known examples of functional gene transfer from one multicellular species to another. When a successful transfer of genes between species occurs, evolution happens overnight instead of thousands of years.
As to how Ishida-sensei could apply this to the story, the functional gene transfer is a more extreme version of what goes in Elysia chlorotica. The kakuhou inserts genes into its human host (e.g. Kaneki), starting a series of chain reactions that cause the human host to “evolve” into a one-eyed ghoul. A byproduct of this development is that the host’s immune system recognizes the foreign material as “self” instead of “foreign” since the host begins to resemble its kakuhou donor.
Another way of thinking about the process is how xenomorphs replicate in the Alien franchise. Xenomorphs require a host organism in order to reproduce and have several life cycles. One of the unique abilities of Xenomorphs is that they inherit traits from their hosts (e.g. a Predator’s mandible), meaning that Xenomorphs can read, convert, and incorporate DNA from their hosts into themselves.
A similar process occurs between the kakuhou and human host. Perhaps the Rc cells from the kakuhou devour and assimilate the human host’s Rc cells. Over time, most, if not all, the human host’s cells are replaced, helping the kakuhou avoid transplant rejection. Epigenetics could also be involved. Two other methods involve cancer-like growths and viral replication.
At first glance, it seems weird. What does cancer have to do with ghoulification? The connection involves the godly regenerative power that (half) ghouls possess. Given enough time and nutrition, ghouls can regenerate just about anything, even cells that normally cannot regenerate in real-life (e.g. nerve cells). The secret to this regenerative power seems to lie within the unique nature of Rc cells.
Red child cells, or Rc cells, comprise a large part of a ghoul’s body. The origin of the name stems from how individual cells resemble curled-up fetuses. People have speculated that Rc cells could be mutated stem cells. Like human stem cells, Rc cells are pluripotent, or have the ability of differentiation. Differentiation is the process by which cells diverge and adopt specific functions, like stem cells transforming into red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. What controls differentiation is gene expression, or epigenetics.
What else is pluripotent? Cancer cells. Did you know that a baby with a tumor in its head contained a nearly perfect foot and the formation of another food, a hand, and a thigh? Did you know that a woman’s ovarian tumor contained brain cells, which caused her body to trigger an immune response to attack her own brain leading to bizarre hallucinations? Did you know that a Japanese woman’s tumor had a head with fine, downy hair, and in the center of its forehead, one fully formed eye cloaked by thick, long eyelashes? By the way, closer inspection of the tumor revealed an ear, four human limbs, a brain, spinal nerve, intestines, bones, and blood vessels–even a jaw that housed perfectly-formed teeth. And freakish cancer incidents are nothing new. In Spain, archeologists found the remains of a Roman woman who lived 1600 years ago. Said woman had a calcified tumor in her pelvis which had bone and four deformed teeth embedded within it.
Again, ghouls can regenerate just about anything if given enough time and nutrition. In a sense, their regeneration is like a “controlled cancer”. Regarding artificial hybrids, something to consider is why so few humans are ideal test subjects for ghoulification. Dr. Kanou’s surgery has a success rate of ~0.25%. The Quinx surgery is vastly superior, but even it has its limitations. Not everyone can become a Quinx as only a few candidates have passed the aptitude test. And then there’s variations to consider. The Yasuhisa twins are not as successful as Kaneki just as Amon is not as successful as Takizawa. For the Quinx, only one, Mutsuki, has exhibited any signs of cannibalism.
Something to consider with human test subjects is their risk of ROS. ROS disease is a rare disease that affects one in every 1-3 million people. Rc cells grow out of control, causing the victim to grow kagune-growths, reminiscent of a tumor or cyst. What would happen if this process could be controlled? In theory, the human would develop an anatomy similar to Kaneki or Eto. Let’s run with the assumption that there is a genetic factor to ROS too since it functions eerily similar to tumors. This “ROS oncogene” would be the deciding factor in whether a human successfuly undergoes ghoulification or whether a natural-born hybrid is born like Eto instead of born like Arima. The ROS oncogene serves as a substitute from what the child would normally receive if its mother was a ghoul.
Expanding upon this line of thought may also explain why transplanted kakuhous avoid transplant rejection. Cancer cells have a variety of mechanism to avoid detection by the immune system. One method is to disguise itself as “normal cells”. Perhaps the kakuhou mimics the human’s Rc cells (the immune system is known to reject foreign stem cells), avoiding transplant rejection. In the process, these “cancer cells” metastasize and alter the human body over time, altering the human’s genotype into that of a hybrid.
A final means of the kakuhou avoiding transplant rejection is viral replication. Viruses come in all sorts of flavors. You have bacteriophages, viruses that attack bacteria, virophages, viruses that attack viruses, etc. Viruses also have profound effects on people. Viruses are suspected culprits in diseases such as cancer, obesity, and mental illness. Viruses have also had a profound effect on human evolution. Did you know that as much as 8% of your genome may have originated from viruses? Perhaps viruses played a similar role in the evolution of ghouls too.
You’d think with Kaneki he was suffering from something like rabies, a virus that attacks the brain and instigates behavioral changes, after forcibly turned into a hybrid. Agitation? Anxiety? Hallucinations? All this and more so. What is interesting to note about Kaneki is that he developed cravings (as in the psychological and physical need for human flesh) after his transformation.
In real-life, viruses are known to change the mind’s hardware. One example is rabies, which causes agitation, irritation, and hallucinations in humans. The Borna disease virus is known to cause hyperactivity, somnolence, depression, and agitation in a variety of animals. Although a causal link hasn’t been established, traces of the virus in humans have been found in significant numbers of depressed and schizophrenic patients. The ATCV-1 chlorovirus, which usually infects algae, can infect humans and is believed to slow people’s visual motor speed and visual processing.
Exhibit A: Him staring at one girl’s thighs is but one example of several.
Is it possible that the kakuhou contains something akin to a virus that genetically alters its human host into a one-eyed ghoul? In real-life, domesticated viruses exist. Polydnaviruses form a symbiotic relationship with parasitic wasps, like braconids. About 17,000 braconids exist, all of whom are parasitic. Interestingly, each braconid has its own unique virus, but they all do the same thing: They suppress the caterpillar’s immune system and tweak its metabolism to favor the growing wasp. If not for the viruses, the wasp grubs would be killed by their host bodies.
Interestingly, this relationship goes both ways. Bracoviruses cannot replicate themselves. They can only be manufactured in the ovaries of the wasps, and once they get into the caterpillars, their life cycle ends. In a sense, they are not true viruses. Instead, they’re like secretions of the wasp’s body.
Getting back on topic, in theory, a transplanted kakuhou possesses a virus that alters both the genotype and phenotype of its human host, turning him into a one-eyed ghoul. The virus has four targets: (1) the mind, (2) the digestive system, (3) the immune system, and (4) Rc cells. Attacking the mind renders the human’s mind to seek human flesh and rewards feelings of pleasure for doing so. Attacking the digestive system renders the human unable to eat anything save the flesh of humans or ghouls. Attacking the immune system renders the kakuhou avoiding transplant rejection. Attacking the Rc cells renders the human capable of ghoul-like regeneration and possibly forming a kakuja.
Assuming such a thing exists, certain factors may be needed for the virus to be active. First, a large amount of viral material is needed (e.g. a ghoul kissing a human won’t do anything). Second, the human may need an appropriate genetic sequence to be a success (e.g the “ROS oncogene” I mention previously). Third, the virus won’t replicate unless the host has an implanted kakuhou, similar to the viruses within parasitic wasps needing the wasp’s ovaries to replicate. Consequently,Kaneki’s phenotype, as well as genotype, is transformed into that of a half-ghoul as a byproduct of the kakuhou avoiding transplant rejection. As to why he doesn’t transform into a full ghoul, who knows. Genetics is complicated and I don’t feel like typing a novel.
